All For You
by KingOgnik
Summary: Lelouch is dead. There was little doubt about that, but what happens when a certain green haired witch simply won't accept that and God decides to do something about that?
1. Introduction

**All for You**

_A Code Geass fanfic_

Hi there!

Thanks for choosing to read my first fanfic and one of my first serious pieces of writing.

This story is a collaborative piece between my co-author, topearsXXVII, and myself.

Since I am so new to this feel free to give me suggestions and advice on my writing, how the story should progress, or even both.

And I do have a lot of other commitments like college so there may be times when I cannot get a chapter written and published on time but I will try to get something out every 1-2 weeks.

So from the both of us I would once again like to say thanks and I look forward to seeing your reviews.

And without further adieu here is the first chapter of "All for You".

-KingOgnik

**Notes:**

Itallics= thoughts

"**bold"**= Abraham 'speaking' through thought

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Code Geass or any of the characters that are represented in this fanfic.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

CC looked up at the sky with a solemn expression on her ageless face as the loaded cart slowly made its way towards the next town. Despite it being such a clear and beautiful day it only served to make the golden-eyed woman even sadder. The reason behind this was simple: Lelouch, the most important person in her long life, was not here to enjoy it with her.

"I said that Geass was the Power of the King, which would condemn you to a life of solitude." CC whispered. "But I think that's not quite correct. Right, Lelouch?"

Suddenly she broke down into tears as she was once again reminded that she was once again alone in this vast yet world. A world that, in its ignorance, despised the man who had made a day like this possible to enjoy without the threat of war constantly looming over their everyday lives.

_Why did it have to end this way?_ She thought as the tears continued to roll down her face. _Is it true that there really was no other way to create this longing peace? Oh Lelouch, I wish that we could have had more time together. If only there was something I could have done differently… __something to prevent you from suffering from your undeserved demise._

Finally fighting off the tears, CC managed to close her eyes and succumb to sleep for the first time since the Zero Requiem had come to its bloody end. The last thing that she held in her mind as she drifted off to sleep was the face of her beloved, with his raven black hair and intelligent and caring violet eyes.

* * *

CC woke up with a start when she noticed that the slow, rhythmic movements of the cart, which she had grown accustomed to during the long journey from the city, had stopped. She immediately noticed two things: one was that she was no longer lying on the cart under the calm, blue sky and the other was that she was in fact on the platform where the late Emperor Charles zi Britannia had sought to destroy God. Looking up, she saw not the endless sea of clouds, but rather an odd planet resembling Jupiter hovering above her.

"The World of C? What am I doing here?"

**"Code Bearer CC!" I have summoned you here because I have heard your wish."** A voice suddenly boomed.

"What? Who said that? And what do you mean you heard my wish?"

**"I am called many things, but I am what you would call a god. For the sake of keeping things simple, you may call me Abraham. And it is as I said, I have heard your wish and have decided to give you a chance to change the past."**

"A second chance?" CC asked shocked, not sure that she had heard the voice correctly.

**"Yes, that is correct. However, keep in mind that if I do give you this second chance, there is always the risk of altering the timeline to be far worse than it presently is. Knowing this, do you still wish to be sent back?"** Abraham asked.

"I- of course I do!" CC exclaimed, still not quite believing what was happening. "I have to ask though, how can returning to the past even be possible? And more importantly, why are you doing this? "

**"I have been around since the beginning of time. Surely you don't think that something as simple as time-travel would pose a problem. And as for your other question, I have chosen to do this for two reasons."** Abraham replied. **"The first one is because your wish is powered by pure intentions and as such is to be admired. The second reason, however, is more personal. You do of course remember the incident with Charles zi Britannia wanting to destroy me with the Sword of Akasha, correct? I feel that it is a shame for the young man who saved me from death and created a peaceful world should end up dead. I assume all of your questions have been answered, so shall we begin?"**

"Yes. Thank you for this opportunity, Abraham. I will not forget you or what you have done for me today."

**"Hehe,"** Abraham chuckled, **"I'm sure you won't, but this will not be the last time that we will come across each other; I will be observing you and your actions from time to time. And remember this well: nobody, especially the one who you call Lelouch, can know of what we are discussing, for I fear that such interference may cause irreparable damage to the future. Now go, Code Bearer CC, and recover your warlock."**

And with those words, CC felt her world start to spin and descend into darkness. The last thing she was conscious of, was hearing Abraham muttering hushed words of destiny and fate.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

In a dark, broken-down warehouse lies a green-haired girl, surrounded by what appeared to be a pool of her own blood and the bodies of several soldiers. Slowly, the young woman began to awaken, seemingly confused about her whereabouts.

_Where am I? _CC wondered, still groggy from 'waking up'. Suddenly, she remembered what had transpired in C's World and she took a better look at her surroundings. Recognition shone on her beautiful face as she realized she was where it had all began, Shinjuku Ghetto. Judging by the sounds outside of her temporary refuge, the battle, which had ended in Lelouch's first victory over the Britannians, was already over.

"So it seems like Abraham was correct when he said that I would be given a second chance to change everything. I suppose I should—"

_**"Code Bearer CC!"**_ a familiar voice boomed in her head.

"Abraham? How are you communicating with me right now?" CC questioned, slightly irritated at being interrupted by the god-like being.

**"I'm merely using the power of the code and C's world to speak with you. I'm sure you are already aware of this unique ability bequeathed to code bearers and how it works. Therefore, there is no need to voice your thoughts while communicating with me."**

_I see, so what is it that is so important that you decided to speak with me so soon?_

**"I was merely analyzing what your intentions were, now that you are back to the beginning of his journey. I have a suggestion that you may find to be most interesting and beneficial to our goal. Does that satisfy your curiosity enough so that we may continue?"**

_Yes, I suppose that is fine for now. Now tell me, what is this 'wonderful' idea that you just had to interrupt me for when I am placed in such a delicate situation?_ CC questioned sarcastically.

**"At this early point of time, it will be best to keep your identity hidden from those that will soon join to become the Black Knights. By avoiding them, the need to worry about Lelouch's identify being compromised will be eliminated if by some chance, he is seen with you."** Abraham replied, stating it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

_I'll keep your words in consideration. Now if that is all you have to say to me, I will need to come up with my first move._ CC thought as she broke the connection. "Ok, now that that's out of the way, I suppose I should find a way to get out of here and make it to Ashford Academy without being detected."

As she trailed off, she noticed large groups of Britannian soldiers making their way towards their transports. Smirking at her luck, CC quickly stripped one of the dead Britannian soldiers of his uniform. The slender woman hastily fastened the heavy armor, picked up a nearby rifle, and calmly strolled out of the warehouse towards the nearest transport back to the city.

Golden orbs glanced back at the familiar carnage and the woman's lips began to curve upwards into a slight smile. With a low chuckle, she resumed marching out from the shadows of the building and into the blinding light.

_So it begins…_

* * *

When the troop transport finally arrived at the military base, CC excused herself from the group of soldiers, whom she had accompanied back with in complete silence, and began to make for the exit. The guard, with seemingly alert eyes, allowed her through without so much as a second glance. CC walked for several blocks before stopping inside a small clothing store. Stepping inside, CC noticed that the establishment was barren, save for the manager: a short and slightly balding man in his mid-forties. Walking up to the counter, still clad in the military garb, CC caught the man's attention. His mouth automatically opened to greet the customer, but upon setting his eyes on the armor, he jolted. Staring blankly at the trembling man from under the helmet's visor, she noticed how nervous he was growing by the moment.

"C-can I help you, S-Sir?" the manager asked nervously.

"Yes, yes you can." CC answered as she began removing the bulky helmet, allowing her long green hair to cascade down her back. "I'm looking for a change of clothes, preferably something that isn't too expensive or flashy. As you can see, my uniform isn't exactly presentable at the moment."

"Oh, that shouldn't be too difficult" the man replied confidently, obviously relieved that the intimidating soldier in front of him was just a woman, a girl, really, who didn't look a day over 17. "Were you considering a simple dress? Or perhaps I could interest you in a skirt and blouse?"

* * *

After listening to the man go through his entire supply of clothes for what seemed like hours, CC finally walked out with her 'purchase': a white dress that fell just above her ankles and a sunhat to hide her hair, which was done up so that the green locks were tucked under the brim. Since she didn't have any money at the time, with minor difficultly, she convinced the manager into accepting the military uniform as payment.

As she walked down the street, CC racked her brain, desperately trying to remember the layout of the city and the quickest way to Ashford academy, but to no avail.

_Damn that Lelouch for not letting me out more before. If he had, then I wouldn't be having such a difficult time trying to find him and his damn school. _Upon thinking that, she immediately regretted cursing him, in consideration of all the things that he had done for her.

_I suppose I'll just have to ask somebody where it is. _CC thought with a sigh.

* * *

CC had asked a passerby where she could find Ashford Academy, claiming to be looking for her brother. Once she obtained the needed directions, it was now a simple matter of walking the thirty blocks. Sometime later, she stood at the front gate, still wide open despite the relatively late hour; it had taken her a fairly long time to find her way to the entrance of the school after all. Not quite believing her luck, she began to make her way towards the student council building.

A few minutes later, she found herself standing in front of _his_ apartment. Steeling herself for what would be only his second encounter with her, she knocked on the door. After a moment, Sayoko, Lelouch's maid and soon-to-be loyal spy, cautiously answered the door. She hid behind the door, almost hunched over, as if she was prepared to attack.

"May I help you?" she asked warily as she looked CC over.

"Yes, you may. I'm an acquaintance of Lelouch and was wondering if I might see him. Is he home at the moment?" CC asked in an unnaturally sweet tone.

"I'm sorry, but Master Lelouch is not present at the moment, but you may come in and wait for him. He should be back any moment."

"Yes, I think I will do that. Thank you."

And with that, CC entered the room she hadn't seen for nearly a year. As her eyes scanned the room, she was overwhelmed with the memories that they had shared here. For a moment, she feared that she would cry out in relief, but she was able to compose herself in time. Sayoko noticed her unusual behavior, but decided to say nothing, for it wasn't her place to question someone whom she assumed was a Britannian and also a friend of her employer.

"Sayoko? Who was at the door?" a meek voice suddenly asked.

Recognizing the soft voice, CC turned around and came face to face with the source of Lelouch's sister complex –err I mean affection, Nunally. Upon seeing the innocent girl, memories of the final events during the fight for the Damocles and of the Zero Requiem began to fill CC's mind once again.

"Lady Nunally, it would appear that Master Lelouch has a visitor, so I took the liberty of letting her in to wait for him until he comes home, although I cannot say that I remember seeing her around here before." Sayoko answered dutifully, all the while still looking over CC like a mother bear protecting her cub.

"Oh, a girl is looking for Lelouch this late at night? Would you like to sit down and talk while we wait for Brother?"

"Yes, I would like that very much, Miss Nunally."

After taking a seat, there was a moment of silence as Sayoko re-entered, carrying a silver tray with two cups of tea. Taking a sip of the darkened liquid, Nunally began the inevitable questioning, with all of the enthusiasm of a child on Christmas Day.

"So, what is your name? What's your relationship with Lelouch? Are you his girlfriend?"

Upon hearing that last question CC felt herself blush slightly.

"You can just call me CC. As for my relationship with Lelouch, it is a little complicated. To be honest, I'm not quite sure how to put it in simple terms, but I can tell you that he made a very important promise to me."

"Oh?! What kind of promise? Did he propose? But if he did, isn't he still too young for marriage? Sayoko, did you know anything about this?"

As soon as those words left her lips, a loud crash was heard from the other side of the room. Turning toward the direction of the noise, CC saw a thoroughly shocked and confused Lelouch frozen by the door.

"Y-You! What are you—"

"Hello, Lelouch."


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Welcome home, big brother." Nunally greeted her still-paralyzed brother with a big smile. "CC and I were just having a nice talk. Why didn't you tell me you had a girlfriend?"

"**Hehe, this should be interesting" **Abraham chuckled in CC's mind.

_Indeed. If I remember correctly, he should regain his senses in 3… 2… 1… Now._

"What?! Nunally I swear this isn't what you think it is! This girl is just a… friend! That's right, a friend!" Lelouch began frantically. "She was just joking around with that whole promise thing, right?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about. I distinctly remember you promising to make my wish come true a few days ago." CC replied with one of her small Cheshire grins.

"Now, listen here, I never—"

"Lelouch, that's not a nice thing to say to CC. I think if you made her a promise then you should keep it." Nunally scolded.

"Ok, fine." Lelouch sighed. "CC, can I see you in the other room? I want to talk to you about something."

"I suppose. It was very nice to meet you, Nunally."

"It was nice to meet you too, CC. Do you think I will be seeing you around more? Maybe we can talk again sometime, if that's fine with Lelouch, of course."

"Yes, I would like that very much. Now if you will excuse me, I have some business to take care of with Lelouch."

And with that, CC followed the raven-haired youth out of the room and into the hallway. As they walked in the direction of his bedroom, the green haired witch began to think what information she should reveal to him this time. It was a given that she would need to warn him of other geass users and code bearers, but beyond that, she wasn't quite sure how to warn him of the other dangers he would face without giving away that she had traveled back in time. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Lelouch spoke.

"Are you done just standing there? I have some matters which I would like to discuss with you, in private."

"Yes, I was just thinking of something important related to our conversation."

With that said, CC entered his room and took her customary spot on his bed; her legs tucked up to her chest hugging a pillow in place of her treasured cheese-kun plushie. Lelouch just gave her a look of both disgust and irritation before taking a seat at his desk.

"First off, I would like an explanation of how you are even alive and here at the moment. I saw you get shot in the head; a normal person would be dead right now after suffering a wound like that." Lelouch began without preamble.

"While it is true that I died, I have something called a code which allows me to recover from any wound, no matter how sever, and which also keeps me from aging. In other words, I am immortal."

"I see. Is this code of yours also responsible for this new power that I have?"

"Yes. As a code bearer, I am granted the ability to bestow the power of geass, which manifests itself differently depending on the person. When someone is granted a geass, the user is bound to the code bearer by a contract."

"What exactly are the terms of our contract? What is it that you expect me to do?"

"I'm not quite sure at the moment. I'll let you know when I think of something." CC replied, despite knowing exactly what it was she desired.

"I see, so is there anything that you feel I should know or will you be leaving now?" Lelouch asked somewhat hopefully.

"Actually, there is something else that you should know. I am not the only person out there who possesses a code and you are not the only one who possesses a geass. And who ever said anything about me leaving?" CC replied with a smirk. "I was under the impression that you were a gentleman, and a gentleman would never throw a poor girl, who has nowhere to go, out into the cold."

"Of course I am a gentleman, but where exactly do you think you will sleep? Between Nunally and myself, I have no spare beds for you to use and since you aren't a student here, I can't exactly find you an empty dorm room." Lelouch reasoned, still trying desperately to convince the green-haired woman to leave.

"I think I will be fine with this bed. It _is_ rather comfortable after all."

The immortal witch figured that while she may have regretted how things were done in the past, and had traveled back in time to fix them, there was no way she would pass up a chance to taunt and annoy Lelouch again. Besides, she reasoned, if she was going to go ahead and change the future, she might as well get a good night's sleep.

"Of course it is comfortable, it's my bed." Lelouch grumbled. "Where exactly do you expect me to sleep? On the couch?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I expect a proper gentleman to do. Now will you keep it down? I'm trying to sleep."

And with that said, CC tossed her boots in Lelouch's direction, narrowly avoiding hitting his head. Grumbling to himself about rude witches, Lelouch picked up her shoes and placed them neatly at the foot of the bed. Taking one last scornful glance at the woman now occupying HIS bed, he gathered up a spare blanket and pillow, placed them on the couch, and collapsed onto it in exhaustion. As soon as he settled into the makeshift bed, he promptly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

CC woke up to the sound the blinds being opened, accompanied by the harsh light of the sun. Groaning, she quickly drew the covers over her head in an attempt to fall asleep again. The raven-haired teen, however, had other plans and as such began to tug at the covers in a weak attempt to dislodge them from the woman's grasp. Suddenly, he felt no resistance and the next thing he knew, he was on the floor, slightly dazed.

"Ow! What did you that for, you witch? I have to get Nunally and myself ready for school and you're wearing my uniform's shirt." Lelouch growled.

Finally deciding to get up, CC looked down at the former Britannian prince with a smirk on her face. This expression only served in making Lelouch even angrier.

"What exactly is so funny? Thanks to you, I injured myself and I am most likely going to be late to class now."

"First off, calm down, you only fell back onto the floor. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt so much if you decided to work out a bit; I have met girls with more muscles than you." CC began with that Cheshire grin of hers still on her face. "And second, I took your shirt because I don't have anything else to wear at night and I doubt you would appreciate it if I slept nude. Or is it perhaps you secretly enjoy the idea of a girl wearing one of your shirts?"

"I- I have no idea what you are talking about! How could I feel any enjoyment in seeing one of my freshly-cleaned shirts being stolen by a witch?" Lelouch stammered with an odd mixture of embarrassment and rage.

"Fine. I will go change and you can have your precious shirt back."

With nothing more to say, she turned towards the direction of the restroom. A few moments later, a door being closed was heard. Lelouch just shook his head and sighed. He had a feeling that between explaining to his teacher why he was late to class and to his friends why his shirt exuded a faint womanly scent, today was going to be a long day. Shortly after he completed his musing, he heard the bathroom door open again. As he turned towards his door, he felt instead of watched as the white cloth flew into his face. Deciding to ignore the woman's obvious attempts to provoke him, he simply fixed his uniform and left.

Once she was certain that Lelouch was gone, CC pulled out his credit card, which she had snatched when he was busy finishing dressing, and with a hungry grin adorning her face, went off to look for a phone.

* * *

On the other side of the campus Lelouch suddenly got the feeling that he was missing something important. Unable to determine what it was exactly, he wrote it off as paranoia due to his new 'roommate'. Despite this, he still couldn't quite get rid of the ominous feeling in the back of his mind.

* * *

Back in his dorm room, CC set down the phone with a look of contentment and eagerness written all over her face. The reason behind this and Lelouch's uneasy feeling was really quite simple: she had just ordered 3 large pizzas with his credit card.

"**Are you sure that was such a wise idea, CC? I'm certain that Lelouch will not be pleased with your actions. Besides, I do not even see how you are able to eat so much pizza by yourself. I suppose you are lucky that you have that code of yours or your precious warlock might just have to put up with having a fat accomplice. That is of course, assuming he won't kill you." **Abraham mused with a hint of amusement, shock, and disapproval in his 'voice'.

"If I didn't have this code, then I would not have even met Lelouch, so your statement is pointless. I'm surprised you didn't consider that, oh wise and all-seeing God." CC teased between bites.

When she didn't get a response from the voice, a small smile crept across her face as she realized the perfect way to get Abraham to shut up when he was bothering her. However, even this victory did not last long in her mind, but instead she went back to eating her pizza with renewed vigor.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It was evening when Lelouch finally got back to his dorm. He let out a sigh of relief; it had been a rough day indeed, first he had to deal with Rivalz and explain to him what had happened the other day during the Shinjuku incident, omitting anything related to his involvement and Geass of course. But that was easy compared to what he had to go through once a certain energetic blonde caught the slight feminine scent on his clothing.

For the rest of the day he was constantly barraged with questions, dealing with what he was really doing during Shinjuku and why his shirt looked and smelled like a woman had slept in it, as well as rumors ranging from he had a secret lover to him running the city's largest prostitution ring. The biggest issue however, was of course from Shirley; he spent a solid hour trying to clear up all of her understandings. He really had no idea that she was that emotional. Yes, he reflected, it had certainly been a stressful day.

Upon opening the door, his nostrils were assaulted with a mix of cheese, pepperoni, and tomato sauce that could only be described as suffocating. After pausing a second to prepare himself, Lelouch took his first tentative steps into the room, shutting the door behind him. With extreme caution, he followed the scent to its source: his room. As the door opened, he was hit with a wave of revulsion as his senses were once again attacked by the pungent odor.

"What is this?" Lelouch asked irritably. "And why does my room smell like a pizzeria?"

"Its pizza, obviously" CC replied casually between bites. "And the reason why your room smells so good should be obvious. I did order 4 large pizzas after all."

Suddenly, Lelouch recalled the odd feeling he had earlier in class, where he felt as if something was missing. Quickly reaching into his pocket, he grabbed his wallet and opened it, searching for something. The look of mild panic slowly gave way to irritation when he was unable to find his credit card in the wallet. As he was doing this, CC watched in amusement, even temporarily pausing her eating to enjoy the results of her handiwork.

"And where exactly did you get the money to buy all of those pizzas?" Lelouch questioned, straining to keep his tone neutral.

"It seems like you already know the answer to that question. I used your credit card." The witch responded as she resumed eating her beloved pizza.

"Would you care to explain why you did such a thing? I don't remember saying anything about you being allowed to do anything of the sort."

"You also never said that I couldn't buy pizza with your card." CC reasoned. "Now can we move past that? It's late and I need to get my beauty sleep."

The raven-haired teen merely sighed in consent. He had, however, made a mental note to keep a better eye on his card from now on. Taking a look around his room, Lelouch noticed three empty pizza boxes. With another sigh, he collected the boxes and set them in a neat stack by his door to dispose of them in the morning. Hearing the rustle of covers from behind him, Lelouch assumed that the immortal witch was already fast asleep. This was confirmed moments later when he turned around and saw her cuddling up with a plushie that looked more like it belonged in a child's toy store than in his room. He smiled faintly at seeing her sleep so peacefully with a small smile gracing her lips. He couldn't help but notice how cute she could be, that is of course, when she wasn't torturing him and spending all of his money on pizza.

Chuckling at the absurdity of having an immortal, pizza-loving witch sleeping in his bed, Lelouch began to get ready for bed as well. After he had climbed into his makeshift bed, Lelouch let out a sigh of relief. Tomorrow there would be no classes so he would be able to begin planning his rebellion seriously. Not long after, he too, was asleep.

* * *

The next day began normal enough; Lelouch was the first to wake, as usual, and while CC slept, he and Nunally enjoyed a nice breakfast, talking like they did before CC and the power of Geass had entered Lelouch's life. Even with Nunally still asking Lelouch about his relationship with CC, much to his dismay, it had been nice for him to once again spend some alone time with his sister.

Once he cleared the table and cleaned the dishes, Lelouch wandered back to his room to see what the witch was up to. When he opened the door, he noticed several things at once. First: CC was finally awake. Second: his wallet laid open on the table beside his bed, and third: CC held his credit card in one hand with his phone in the other. After only a moment's delay, he briskly walked up and snatched the card and phone from her. His elation at what he believed to be a small victory quickly turned to alarm when he saw her smirking.

"Don't tell me that you—" Lelouch began.

"If you were going to say that I just ordered 2 large pizzas for delivery, then yes, I did." CC interrupted with that accursed smirk of hers still on her face.

"What made you think that I would let you buy that stuff this time around?"

"I figured it would be a nice reward for protecting your secret." She replied calmly.

Upon hearing those words, Lelouch tensed up slightly at the prospect of being discovered and arrested. CC grinned slightly, knowing that she had just said the right thing to make him overlook her small purchases. After thinking things through a little, Lelouch began to question her.

"What do you mean you protected my secret? I don't see how anyone could possibly have found out or how you could have done anything when you were in here the entire time." He said, still slightly suspicious of her claim.

CC said nothing and simply held up his Zero mask and pointed to his couch, which he hadn't even bothered to look towards since entering the room. Following her finger, he noticed a grey cat with a large black spot around its left eye. Looking back at the mask, then the cat again, it suddenly clicked in his mind what most likely occurred.

"You can't be serious. Do you mean to tell me that I was almost found out by a mere feline?" Lelouch asked for clarification, not quite believing the situation.

"Yes, that is exactly what I am telling you. When I wasn't looking, it knocked down the case that held this." CC replied, indicating to the mask she still held in her hand. "I guess when that happened, it landed on the cat's head and it began moving towards the other room, and from there I can only assume that it would have made its way outside."

**"A guess, huh? And tell me, detective, if you enjoyed watching Lelouch run around in a panic the last time, why did you stop the cat before it could cause all of that mayhem again?"** Abraham asked, just as amused as the witch herself.

_I figured that since it was a close call with that Suzaku character almost getting the mask instead of Lelouch, it would be best to avoid risking losing him this early. _CC thought back at him. _Now, if you don't mind, I still have a conversation with Lelouch that I would like to finish._

**"As you wish. Just don't make everything too boring, it's not like I get much for amusement here in C's World."**

While this conversation was going on in CC's mind, Lelouch was just shaking his head at the sheer absurdity of the situation, I mean a cat, of all things, almost giving up his identity as Zero. He suddenly thought paying for those pizzas wasn't too bad of a way to thank her for it. He did, however, once again remind himself to keep a better eye on that card or perhaps tuck it somewhere out of the woman's reach in the future.

"Well? Do you have anything to say about my helping you?" CC interrupted his train of thought, yet again.

"I suppose that a thank you is in order, isn't it? Very well, as my way of showing gratitude, I will pay for that pizza THIS TIME, but try to restrain yourself in the future."

This only served to make CC laugh at the thought of going easy on Lelouch's money and actually giving up pizza. Unknown to the teen, Abraham was also chuckling to himself, much for the same reason, elated that he would still get some entertainment in the near future. Shaking his head and sighing, Lelouch made his way to the door.

"Where are you going right now? I thought there weren't any classes for students today."

"There was a reason for that, and right now I have to go and see to it." He replied in a saddened tone.

Detecting the sudden change in tone, CC decided to leave it at that. With that, Lelouch left the room, and moments later she heard the door to his dorm close shut. After pondering about the reason behind his departure and sudden change of attitude, CC suddenly recalled what made today so special; it was the day of Prince Clovis' funeral. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing, followed by a knock at the door. Looking out the window, she saw her delicious pizza waiting at the door. With a content smile on her face, she made towards the door and her second most loved thing in this world.

* * *

In the gymnasium, on the other side of the campus, Lelouch was standing at attention in the crowd of his fellow students. Suddenly, a voice was heard throughout the crowded room.

"Please stand by for the speech from his Royal Majesty." The voice said, completely devoid of any emotion whatsoever.

With that, the screen in the front of the gym immediately switched to a view of a large wall of flowers, a picture of Clovis, his casket, and in front of them all, physically imposing even behind the podium, was the emperor, Lelouch's father, Charles zi Britannia. Upon seeing the one man he hated more than any other, the raven-haired teen's fists clenched, fighting to maintain a neutral expression, lest he attract suspicion for showing anger towards the emperor. The man began to speak after only a moment's delay.

"All men are not created equal. Some are born swifter afoot, some with greater beauty, some are born into poverty. And others are born sick and feeble, both in birth and upbringing." His voiced boomed throughout the gym. "In sheer scope of ability, every human is inherently different."

All the while Lelouch, who was still struggling to reign in his temper, began to look around the gym to gauge the emotions of the other students. He wasn't surprised to see most of them either entranced by the man before them, crying from the loss of a royal, or in some cases, both.

"Yes, that is why people discriminate against one another, which is why there is struggle, competition and the unfaltering march of progress. Inequality is not wrong, equality is! What of the E.U., which made equality a right? Rabble politics by a popularity contest. The Chinese Federation with its equal distribution of wealth? A nation of lazy dullards! But not our beloved Britannia, we fight, we compete! Evolution is continuous! Britannia alone moves forward, advancing steadily into the future. Even the death of my son Clovis demonstrates Britannia's unswerving commitment to progress. We will fight on! We shall struggle, compete, plunder and dominate! And in the end, the future shall be ours. ALL HAIL BRITANNIA!"

As soon as the speech ended, a wave of applause swept through the people gathered in the gymnasium. Unable to take any more of this mindless worship of his mortal enemy, Lelouch silently made his way out of the room, the sounds of praise and worship following him like a vengeful spirit.


	6. Chapter 5

**Author note:** (to guest reviewer) To answer your question, yes that already happened. That would have taken place right before the chapter when CC surprises Lelouch in his dorm, just like in the cannon. I just never put that in the story because it focuses more on CC's journey and seeing as she wasn't involved, I left it out. If I don't put something specifically in the story that will usually mean that the event(s) left out happened as they did in the story. Hope I answered your question.

Sad news, due to time other time commitments my co-author and editor, topearsXXVI, is taking a break (not sure for how long or if there are plans to return) from helping with my story. If anyone is interested, I would be extremely appreciative if I could ask one of my readers to act as a temporary replacement. If you are interested please PM me as soon as possible and i will get back as soon as i can. Thanks!

Without further delay, here is chapter 5 of All For You.

* * *

Chapter 5

CC was suddenly interrupted from her afternoon 'snack' of 2 large pepperoni pizzas, one of which had already been devoured by the ravenous young woman, by the sound of a door being closed rather abruptly and loudly. Knowing that it must be Lelouch coming back from the broadcast of his half-brother's funeral, she decided that it might be a good idea to stop eating for a moment and see how he was doing. With one last longing look at her half eaten pizza, CC got off the bed and made her way to the living room, where she found Lelouch standing there, obviously enraged at seeing the man whom he hated more than anything else in the world.

Sensing that there was suddenly another presence in the room, the raven-haired teen turned around and saw his immortal accomplice standing near the entryway with a slightly worried expression on her face. After a moment of awkward silence between the two, CC decided to speak up.

"I take it you were at the funeral just now." She said, more a statement than a question. "And judging by your attitude right now, I assume that you saw the emperor as well."

"Is it that obvious?" the young prince replied. "That man is the reason that I must destroy Britannia and create a peaceful world for Nunally's sake."

"Yes, I am well aware of your reasons for fighting. I also think that right now we need to start planning our next step, seeing as the Britannians have put Cornelia in charge of Area 11."

"I agree, Cornelia is definitely not one to be taken lightly, neither are her elite troops. She is not like most Britannian commanders, directing their troops far away from the battle; she prefers to be in the fight with her subordinates and she certainly has the piloting skills to excel."

"While that is certainly true, we still have a demon on our side." CC said with a smirk. "I have a feeling however, that she will try to pull you into a trap, using your own pride to make sure that you show up. If that happens what do you think we should do?"

"A demon huh? I actually like the sound of that, a witch and a demon working together certainly does make for an interesting and dangerous pair." Lelouch replied with a chuckle. "And as for that trap you mentioned, I'm afraid that my dear sister is already one step ahead of you. My sources tell me that she is preparing an assault on the Saitama ghetto tomorrow."

This caused CC to frown a little at hearing that she didn't think to say anything about this earlier. Perhaps, she thought, she could still prevent what had ended up in a humiliating defeat.

"I see. So what is it that you plan to do? It is obvious that she is challenging you. If you don't show up, people will lose any small amount of faith that they have in you. On the other hand, if you do go there, there is a very good chance that she will capture you."

"Yes, that is indeed a very accurate analysis of the situation. Seeing as Cornelia went to all of the trouble to invite me to her little party, I feel it would be a shame to turn her down." He stated arrogantly. "Besides, I doubt that she will be able to best me in a strategic fight."

Irritated that she was going through this situation yet again, CC became even more determined to prevent that fiasco from happening twice. Frowning slightly, she began to consider her options, which were limited, due to the fact that they no longer had the resources of the Black Knights or even the Britannian military any more. Lelouch, seeing his accomplice deep in thought, brows furrowed, walked over to his closet. Pressing a cleverly concealed button in the back, a panel moved out of the way, revealing his Zero outfit on a hanger and, on the bottom of the secret compartment, an unmarked box.

Reaching in, he grabbed this mysterious box, and walked back to the witch. CC, who had not noticed the teen's actions until now, gave him a questioning stare. Her eyes suddenly grew wide with surprise as Lelouch opened the box and pulled out a costume, an amused smirk on his face at seeing the young girl's expression.

"So, what do you think?" he asked, laying the outfit, complete with a helmet and shoes, on the bed.

At first glance, the costume looked eerily similar to his own, and upon closer inspection, it was revealed to be an exact replica of Zero's suit, with one difference: it was pure white.

"Is this what I think it is?" CC asked as she picked up the helmet to look at it closely.

"Yes, it is. I figured that since we are partners, that you might need something to hide your identity from the Britannians. With that in mind I had a rather 'generous' tailor make you one, free of charge."

**"See, I told you I was a good idea."** Abraham suddenly taunted. **"Even your precious prince thought you should keep your identity a mystery."**

CC decided to ignore this obvious attempt by Abraham to start yet another pointless conversation and instead turned her attention back to Lelouch.

"So you want to hide me from others is that it? Could it be that you are jealous that I might find somebody better than you? Or do you just want to keep me all to yourself?" the witch teased, a part of her actually wanting to hear his answer.

"W-what?!" Lelouch sputtered. " O-of course I'm not jealous and there is no way that I could ever want a witch like you. It is just like I said; I had this made so we could avoid drawing unnecessary attention. Now if you are done with such ridiculous questions, we need to start planning out tomorrow's operation."

* * *

The next day came sooner than expected, but the pair was able to finalize their plans for the Saitama operation. After eating a small breakfast, they left Ashford and made their way to the ghetto carrying Zero costumes in duffel bags. In order to avoid detection, it was still dark outside, the hour being early enough that most people, including the military personnel, were still in their beds. As an extra precaution, CC wore a disguise consisting of a black wig that reached down past her shoulders and an old jacket and pants of Lelouch's.

After an hour, they finally arrived at the bridge that led into what was soon to become yet another battlefield. They immediately got to work setting up explosives on the pylons of the bridge, to be used once the bombardment had begun to seal off a possible escape route. Once they had finished those preparations they started their search for the local terrorist groups hideout, Lelouch using his geass to 'persuade' the locals to help him. Once they had a location they split up, CC making her way to the top floor of a bombed out building, near where she knew the command vehicle would be located. Lelouch on the other hand, found a secluded area near the rebel HQ and began to put on his Zero suit.

Once he was satisfied with his appearance, he boldly walked up to the entrance, which was guarded by a pair of armed men, not much older than himself. Seeing him approach, the men raised their rifles and ordered him to stop and state his business. Lelouch, not seeing the point of bothering to talk to these lowly guards, simply used his geass to force them to allow him entry into the base, which was little more than an old shop with boarded-up windows. Once inside, he was confronted with even more men with guns, all of whom seemed to be just more lowly foot soldiers. With the most commanding voice he could muster, he addressed the ragged group.

"Which one of you is the leader of this group?" he demanded.

After a moment of silence, a man, who looked to be in his early 30's, stepped forward, a pistol at the ready.

"That would be me. I'm Shinji Kanagawa, leader of the Blood of the Samurai faction. You must have some balls to walk right in here like you own the place, especially in that ridiculous getup."

At this his men began to laugh, all the while keeping their various weapons trained on the masked man.

"Now would you mind telling me who the hell you are and why you are here before I order my men to dispose of you?"

"I am Zero. And I have come here to aid you in the coming battle against the Britannians. I will, however, require all of you to follow each and every one of my orders without hesitation."

This only served to make the gathered group of terrorists to roar with laughter. The leader, Kanagawa, however, did not find this the least bit amusing.

"Like hell I would follow orders from some lunatic dressed like he belongs in the circus. And besides, what the hell are you talking about? There is no battle going on and the Britannians wouldn't attack here anyway."

Suddenly the conversation was interrupted when a man ran into the room, out of breath, presumably from running. Everyone, except Lelouch, stared at the man as he tried to catch his breath, wondering what was the matter. The raven-haired teen already knew what was happening so he simply took this chance to take something from his pocket and place it on his chest. Nobody noticed these actions since they were still focused on the man who had begun telling them that the Britannians had completely surrounded the ghetto, looking as they might strike at any moment. This shocked everybody, especially their leader, who turned to face Lelouch once again.

"As you can see, you are completely surrounded by a superior enemy. All routes of escape have been cut off and you will die. However, if you choose to follow my orders you will be able to survive, to win. Remember Shinjuku? That was also my doing."

"You bastard! You knew that this would happen! Are you a spy? I should just kill you now!" Kanagawa roared as he raised his pistol.

"I don't believe that you are familiar with this device on my chest." lelouch said, pointing to the device that had gone unnoticed until now. "It is a bomb made of pure sakuradite and it will detonate if my heart stops beating. As I told you before, you have two options: to fight with me and live or to die. It is your choice."

"Damn you!" the leader cursed, before sighing. "Fine, we will follow your orders, but mark my words, if you fail, I will kill you myself, consequences be damned."

"I would expect nothing less. Now here is what we will do…"

* * *

Lelouch just finished settling into the cockpit of a Sutherland, which he had 'borrowed' from an unsuspecting scout unit, when he called CC over their personal radio channel.

"I see that you are still alive." CC said with a smile.

"Of course, did you honestly expect a pathetic group of terrorists could provide any sort of trouble to me?" he responded rather arrogantly.

"I suppose I didn't really expect much out of them, but still, I am glad you are alright."

"I understand. Your concern is welcome, but unnecessary. How are things at your end?" came his response, actually happy that CC seemed to care for his well being, even though he just assumed it was likely just for the sake of their contract.

"I am in position and ready for whatever may happen. Just as I thought, the command unit has stopped right below the building that I am staged in. It looks like Cornelia will begin her attack momentarily; she has been checking her knightmare constantly, and the same can be said for her soldiers."

"Excellent, it would seem that all of the conditions have been met." He said as he switched to the channel that was being used to direct everyone, CC now included. "This is Zero. All units, commence the operation!"


	7. Chapter 6

**Author note: **hello again my faithful readers, I am still on the look-out for a possible editor for this story so there may be a slight difference in the quality of writing in this chapter as well as others. Please forgive any mistakes, as I am trying to get things right but it is a real pain without the help of somebody to give me any constructive criticism. Oh ya, I am rather pathetic when it comes to writing out a battle scene so please don't hold that against either.

Without further adieu here is the next chapter of All For You.

* * *

Chapter 6

"This is Zero. All units, commence the operation!"

A chorus of affirmatives crackled through the radio the group's leader had provided him. Peering at his 'borrowed' Sutherland's IFF screen, he noticed that none of the enemy's units had moved out from their staging areas. _Perfect,_ he thought,_it would seem like I have the element of surprise still_. After considering what his first move should be, Lelouch opened a channel with the witch.

"CC, it would appear that our hosts aren't going to make the first move. Detonate the explosives on the bridge as soon as we engage them."

"Understood."

* * *

The green-haired woman, still in her perch above the G1 command vehicle, took one last look at the detonator that was set to blow the explosives they had laid on the bridge, to make sure that it would work as expected. Seeing nothing wrong with it she awaited the signal she was sure would be coming momentarily.

Suddenly she heard several small explosions, closely followed by 3 larger ones. It would seem that the rebels had begun their attack on one of the enemy's patrols. After a moment the assembled knightmares, as well as the infantry and tanks, began to move out, their organization efficient but predictable.

With a small smile, she picked up the device and pressed the button.

* * *

Cornelia was in the command room of the G1 when a technician suddenly reported the complete loss of one of their forward scouting units. All heads turned towards her in expectancy, their faces eager at the prospect of wiping out yet another group of those filthy elevens who dare defy their brilliant Britannia.

"What are you waiting for?" the princess questioned. "The enemy has shown themselves and have decided to fight rather than run. For the glory of the empire, commence the attack."

With that order, the command center suddenly came alive as the soldiers began to spread the order throughout the ranks. Satisfied that her troops would be able to complete their objectives quickly and efficiently, Cornelia turned her attention to the map, which showed their entire formation.

A large explosion suddenly shook the room with great force, sending several officers grabbing for something to stabilize themselves. Cornelia, however, merely stood there as if the entire vehicle was not shaking, looking as unmovable and unbeatable as a mountain. She quickly turned to a startled sergeant.

"What the hell happened?" she roared.

"Um… I-it would appear that the terrorists have blown the bridge. I am also getting no response from any of the units stationed there. I'm afraid that they are lost." Replied the poor man, scared out of his wits by his superior's rage.

His fear, as well as those of several others, increased when a dark grin slowly appeared on her face. Guilford, who stood in the corner watching the entire scene, even had to admit that he was slightly intimidated at her expression.

"It would appear that we might very well be dealing with Zero himself. Come at me Zero, my brother Clovis will be avenged."

* * *

At the same time, Lelouch was becoming extremely satisfied with how things were going for him. With the destruction of the bridge, and Cornelia's rear most guard along with it, and several patrols being swiftly dealt with, things were beginning to become interesting.

"P group, fire anti-armor rounds 30 degrees and to the north."

This order was accompanied by the sound of two tanks exploding simultaneously over his radio. With a smirk, Lelouch turned his attention back to the monitor to search for his next target.

"B3, head to point L14 and engage your emergency IFF signal. B2 prepare to engage any units that approach him from the east, B5, the west."

After a couple minutes, a report came in stating that they had successfully ambushed a squad of soldiers and one tank. Seconds later a report came in from CC warning him that Cornelia had dispatched a pair of Gloucesters, heading for the direction of L14. After acknowledging, he sent a warning to the units positioned there, who promptly escaped through the route he had described. With a sigh, he switched to CC's personal channel.

"CC, anything to report on your end?"

"No, but I can tell you are enjoying yourself." She replied in a teasing tone.

"Of course I am, things are going perfectly. In fact, I am certain that Cornelia will go into the second phase of her operation and recall her troops very soon. At that time I will infiltrate their forces with Kanagawa's team and secure Cornelia."

"And I will be waiting to save you when things go wrong." She teased.

"There is nothing to worry about, we—"

He was suddenly interrupted from his conversation when a loud beep sounded throughout the knightmare, indicating the loss of a friendly unit. Taking a look at the screen, Lelouch noticed that the knightmare that had been destroyed had been one of those whom he had tasked with guarding both himself and the rebel HQ. As if to hit home the fact that the battle was changing, 2 more blips suddenly vanished from his monitor, these two being even closer to where his position was than the last. The loss of those units now meant that Lelouch was in the path of whatever was decimating his forces, with no more terrorists to act as a protective net.

He immediately switched over to the main frequency of the radio and contacted Kanagawa, asking him for a situation report on whatever it was that was advancing steadily towards him.

"Its Cornelia and those elite troops of hers, they are killing us out there! I knew it was a bad idea to listen to you!" he roared. "Everyone, this is Shinji, we are getting out of here, we can't fight against these guys!"

"Wait! We can still win if we—"

"Shut up, you bastard! Because of you I lost a lot of good men! Screw your orders, nobody can win against Cornelia or her elite soldiers."

With that, the line went dead as Kanagawa cut the connection, followed soon by the remaining rebels.

* * *

Throughout the Saitama ghetto, the remaining terrorists threw down their weapons and abandoned their knightmare frames, trying to escape or surrender. In the G1 command center Cornelia gave a small grin of satisfaction at the success of the operation so far, now there was only one thing left to do, and that was to see if Zero had fallen for her bait and folded in with her retreating forces. She turned to the officer in charge of the communications.

"You there, how much longer until all forces are recovered?" she asked rather impatiently.

"Complete withdrawal should be complete in the next 5 minutes, princess."

"Good," with that she turned to her knight, Guilford. "I will be in my knightmare, remain here and take command until I return."

"I understand, my princess. But do you think it wise to go out there? If Zero is actually fool enough to try and infiltrate our lines then you would be placing your own life in danger."

"Guilford, I am not one of your weak women, do not worry about me." She said as she walked out.

"I know, but please be careful, Cornelia." He said so quietly nobody heard him.

* * *

Back at CC's perch, the immortal witch was trying to calm down the angry prince in front of her. Although she herself was also irritated that they had once again lost at Saitama due to the cowardly and disorganized bunch of so-called freedom fighters, she understood that some things, such as human nature, could not be changed with a simple strategy and knowledge of the future.

"Damn those cowards! If the conditions were equal I would have won for sure." The teen fumed at nobody in particular.

"That may be true, but they weren't so, there is no use in complaining about it." She reasoned. "The question is what will we do now. Do we follow the original plan with just the two of us or do we fallback for now?"

Although she asked what he wanted to do, CC had a feeling that she already knew, and that her accomplice would want to continue the attack. Much to her surprise however, he gave a much different answer from last time.

"We will leave for now, there is nothing more that we can do with just the two of us. But next time we will win, I will make sure of that. I can no longer rely on just these pathetic terrorist, what I— no, what we must do is create an elite fighting force that can stand up to Britannia." He said, as he walked in the direction of the sewer, which would provide their escape route.

_Some things never change_, CC thought with a grimace as she thought of the horrid stenches she had to endure in there once before.

* * *

Cornelia had just finished inspecting her troops, searching for an imposter. But to her dismay, there was nobody in her lines that shouldn't be. Apparently the man who called himself Zero did not fall for her trap.

_Or,_ she thought bitterly,_ perhaps we never were dealing with Zero in the first place._

With one last glance at the ruins of the ghetto, Cornelia ordered all of her remaining soldiers to withdraw from the area of operations and head back to base.

"This isn't over, you smug bastard. I will find you, and when I do, I will make sure you regret the day you were born."


	8. Chapter 7

**Author's note:** So… sorry about such a bad last chapter and for making you wait longer than usual. I am terrible at writing battle scenes and have been packed with midterms but I guess that isn't a real good excuse haha. Hopefully you guys like this chapter as much as I do since I hated the last one (I am sooo rewriting that one in the future).

Without any further rambling here is the next chapter of All For You!

* * *

Chapter 7

It was late afternoon when Lelouch and CC finally got back from their long trek through the Saitama sewers, as such Nunally was waiting for him in the dining room, as usual. While Lelouch was busy explaining to his sister why he smelled so bad, CC quickly and quietly made her way to the shower to cleanse herself of that filth. Lelouch, much to his chagrin, was forced to wait for nearly an hour in his room before CC came out, allowing him to clean up.

Once they were both done and changed into fresh clothing, Lelouch in casual slacks and shirt and CC in her usual prisoner straightjacket, they got to the matter at hand.

"That is the last time that I go wandering around in a sewer for you, Lelouch Lamperouge." CC began in a slightly irritated tone.

"You certainly won't get any complaints from me." The teen agreed. "And I assume you wouldn't be opposed to burning those clothes either, right?"

"Of course not. In fact I think that may be the best idea that you have had so far." The witch teased with a smirk.

Lelouch decided to let her jibe go unnoticed and instead went over to his closet and, after opening the secret compartment, placed both his and CC's Zero costumes inside. With that taken care of he returned his attention once again on the young woman lying on his bed, the seemingly ever-present cheese-kun doll gripped in her arms.

"If you are comfortable enough can we start going over our next steps?" he asked sarcastically, without quite meaning to sound that way. It would seem he was still in a relatively sour mood from the defeat and subsequent hike through what was quite possibly the worst smelling place he had ever been in.

"That's fine with me. Earlier you said that we would need to create something more than just a terrorist cell, that we need something that can stand up to the might of Britannia, correct?"

"Yes, that is correct. If we are to stand victorious against them we require an army, not just of soldiers but also of people. In order to do that we need to become something that the Japanese can approve of but, more importantly, support."

"That is obvious. The question is where do you propose we get this army of yours? If my memory serves correctly that group from Shinjuku seemed to be rather organized for a bunch of simple terrorists, not to mention you have already proven yourself to them with the rescue of Kururgi."

"Those were my thoughts exactly. If we can use them, under my command, and with the right resources, there is a good chance that they can become what we need. Now, lets move on to the other details."

And so they continued, working several more hours into the night, discussing what would serve as their hideout, how they might gain the support of the people, and other things of that nature. Naturally CC was the one who came up with most of the answers, seeing as she had lived, and died, through all of this before. By the time the lights finally went out, several minutes after midnight, everything for the birth of the Order of the Black Knights had been set. Little did Lelouch know his group would be getting their first debut much earlier than expected.

* * *

Lelouch and CC were sitting on the couch in an expensive room going over the last few things before their new 'comrades' showed up. Both of them were dressed in their Zero outfits, minus the masks for the moment. They heard a knock on the door and, after donning their masks and CC walking out of the room, Lelouch answered with a simple "enter".

The terrorists entered the trailer one by one; each just as awed at what they were told would be their new headquarters. After a moment of silence one of them, Kaname Oghi, spoke up.

"So, do you honestly think that joining up with us is a good idea?"

"Yes, we are comrades after all." The masked man replied coolly.

"Do you mind if I ask how you came by this?"

"Not at all."

Everyone, Lelouch exempted, quickly turned around at the sound of woman's voice coming from the second level. Their faces were masks of confusion at the appearance of a white, slightly shorter, Zero.

"We simply borrowed it from a rather libertine nobleman who indulges our requests." CC continued as she made her way to her place by Lelouch's side. "No need to worry, there are no strings attached."

"Who the hell is she?" Tamaki asked, with all of the subtlety of a charging bull, which CC reflected wasn't such a bad comparison.

"This is Infinity, she is my accomplice and will be second in command of our group from now on." Lelouch answered, slightly amused at seeing this man acting so bizarrely.

"If that is the case, then why wasn't she there to help with the rescue operation or even Shinjuku?" it would seem that Kallen had found her voice as well. "I mean we don't even know her or quite frankly trust her."

"I don't see how that is any concern of yours, miss Kozuki. And I really do not care if you trust me or not, to be honest. I have more than proven myself to Zero in the past and he couldn't get rid of me if he wanted to."

**"Isn't that the truth? And guess what? I don't even think that your lover wants to be away from you? Hahaha!" **Abraham teased.

_You're back again? I swear you are worse than that oaf they call Tamaki. _CC thought back as a small blush came across her face as she fully realized what he had said. _And I do NOT love him!_

**"Of course I am still here, I never left. It is my job, not to mention great pleasure, to stay in communication with you."** Abraham lectured.** "And you just keep telling yourself that CC, you are the one who cried for his death and travelled through time to be with him and save him. Besides, your red face isn't exactly helping your case."**

"Damn that idiot." CC muttered quietly enough that nobody noticed.

She then noticed that the newly formed Black Knights had found their new uniforms.

"Don't you think that these are a little over the top for just a terrorist group?" Oghi questioned.

"Wrong! You are no longer a terrorist group. What we are, what we are trying to be, are knights for justice." The raven-haired teen announced, much to the utter shock of the former rebels in front of him, all of whom just stared at him with expressions ranging from incredulous to amusement.

"I see you all doubt our goals. I suppose that is to be expected after all. Why don't you make yourselves at home? We will discuss this matter later, after you have all settled in." with that said, Lelouch and CC made their way up the stairs towards their room.

While most of the group began looking around, one of them decided to turn on the TV. Turning to the news, what came on shocked everyone. The news showed a reporter in front of the Lake Kawaguchi Convention Center Hotel where a rogue group of soldiers from the Japan Liberation Front, led by Lt. Col. Kusakabe, had taken people hostage inside. The screen suddenly changed views to show a room full of men and women, several of whom Kallen recognized as members of the student council. Shocked with this new development, she ran up the stairs and knocked on the door to Zero and Infinity's quarters.

"Yes?" came infinity's reply after a moment's silence.

"It's me, Kallen, there's something on the news that I think Zero needs to see."

The door suddenly opened to reveal Zero, Infinity slightly behind him and to his right. Without a word from either of the masked leaders they made their way past her and headed down the stairs. Kallen merely stood there for a second, pondering what they could have been discussing in their room that could have been so important that they had to keep in quiet from the others. Deciding it probably wasn't all that important, she shrugged it off and followed the pair back into the main room, where everyone's eyes were transfixed to the screen.

"Zero, what will happen to the hostages?" Kallen asked concernedly.

However, before Lelouch could respond to the question, CC relied.

"Eventually there will be no reason for them to be kept alive."

"I'm afraid that she is indeed correct, the Britannians will not negotiate with terrorists. I'm certain that the JLF knows this and are doing this to simply try and spread their message."

"In other words, their lives are default. There is however another option, right Zero?"

"Yes, I suppose you are correct. I believe that this could also provide the ideal time for our group's debut." Lelouch responded before turning to face his soldiers in his personal war against Britannia. "We, the Order of the Black Knights, will rescue those Britannian civilians."

* * *

A van was seen driving down a darkened road. Ahead of it there was a blockade of several knightmares and soldiers and beyond those was the hotel that had been hijacked by the rogue JLF soldiers. On the roof Lelouch stood on the platform, looking like a general leading his troops into battle. In the cab Kallen and Oghi were discussing Zero's earlier comment about the being knights of justice. CC was in the back of the van along with all of the others who would be taking part in this operation, everyone checking their weapons. She rolled her eyes in irritation when one of them started to question Lelouch's leadership and her presence.

The van suddenly came to a stop when a trio of knightmares sped into the path of the group's vehicle, effectively blocking it. Moments later they were entirely surrounded by the forces that made up the perimeter defenses. Lelouch, behind his mask, smirked at the predictability of Cornelia. The hatch of the lead knightmare opened to reveal none other than the princess herself.

"Zero, we meet again. Are you part of the Japan Liberation Front? Or perhaps you are here to help us? Regardless, our concerns take priorities over yours at the moment. And so, for the death of my brother Clovis, I will take my revenge right here." She stated as she raised her weapon to fire.

"Cornelia, which would you choose? Clovis, who is dead, or Euphemia, who is alive?" After pausing a moment to gauge her reaction, Lelouch continued. "It is within my power to save her."

"What do you mean?!" Cornelia shouted. "I have no idea what you are talking about!"

"I said I am able to rescue her. So what will you do?"

The seconds ticked by as Cornelia weighed her options and digested what the masked man had said. Slowly she lowered her weapon and ordered her troops to let Zero pass, unharmed. As the van made its way across the bridge, everyone was wondering whether they would be allowed entrance, except for Lelouch and, of course, CC, both of whom knew the temptation to meet the famous Zero would be to great for Kusakabe to resist. Their suspicions were confirmed when the gates suddenly opened, allowing them to enter the besieged hotel.

Lelouch and CC stood in a large room, facing the Lt. Col. Who was sitting on the couch, sword gripped in both hands.

"You have no intention of joining me?" Lelouch asked the man.

"Before we discuss any more of this I must ask for both of you to remove your masks, it would be disrespectful not to." He reasoned.

"I understand, but before we do that, I would like to ask you something." CC spoke up. "What is it that you expect to accomplish here?"

"To gain attention. I want Britannia and the world to know that the Japanese people aren't dead yet."

"How stale. You people are obsolete and are beyond saving." Lelouch said scornfully.

"How dare you! Zero there is no point in talking to you anymore!" Kusakabe roared as he leapt from his seat, drawing his sword in the process. Behind him his two guards began fumbling for the rifles at their sides. The two masked figures however were completely unfazed by their actions and Zero's mask opened up slightly to reveal his geass.

"Die." He said simply. The three men suddenly stopped their actions and swiftly, without any regard for their lives, committed suicide. The door flew open at the sound of the gunshots to reveal 4 more terrorists. The one who was unlucky enough to step in was met with a bullet to the shoulder. Clutching his arm in pain the man looked up at Zero, gun still smoking in his hand.

"The Lt. Col. and the others committed suicide once they recognized the hopelessness of their situation. I suggest that you and your comrades leave, now." The masked man explained. "However, if you would be so kind as to leave the princess with us I would be appreciative."

The men turned and made to leave when they closed the door, however, they came face to face with several members of the Black Knights who had just finished planting explosives. Back inside the room Lelouch was speaking with Euphemia.

"I heard you are the sub-viceroy now, your highness." Zero said, staring at Euphemia.

"It's not an appointment I'm happy with." Euphemia answered.

"No, I suppose it isn't. It's because Clovis was murdered. That was my handy work." Zero answered, causing the third princess to flinch slightly. "He begged pathetically for his life to the very end. He pleaded with the same tongue that ordered the death's of elevens."

"Is that the reason you killed Clovis?" she asked, softly.

"No." he answered her. "Then why? Why did you kill my brother?"

Zero stayed silent for a moment and then took a step forward. "Because Clovis was an offspring of the Britannian Emperor. That reminds me... you're one of his children too, aren't you?" Zero asked as he lifted up a gun and pointed at Euphemia.

After a moment he lowered and put away his weapon. The hotel then began to shake rather violently as the Lancelot, which had just destroyed the JLF's linear cannon, fired at the hotel's support column, weakening it until it finally collapsed.

* * *

The Lake Kawaguchi hotel suddenly erupted in a great blast of fire as all of the charges placed strategically throughout were detonated. After a few moments of silence following the blast, a yacht, surrounded by rafts full of the hostages, was seen coming out of the smoke and dust surrounding the destroyed building. On the main deck of the large yacht Zero and Infinity stood out in front of a large group of black-clad figures.

"My dear Britannians, have no fear. All of the hostages from the hotel are safe and sound. I, Zero, return them to you unharmed." The masked man began with little preamble.

"People! Fear us or rally behind us as you see fit. We are the Black Knights. We of the Black Knights stand for those who have no weapons to wield, regardless if they be Elevens or Britannians. The Japan Liberation Front cowardly took Britannian civilians, held them hostage and then executed them without mercy." Infinity continued.

"It was a meaningless act therefore they have been punished. Just as former Viceroy Clovis was punished for ordering the slaughter of countless unarmed Elevens." Zero said.

"We can not stand by and allow such cruelty to be carried out... and so we made him pay for his cruel actions. I will not tolerate a one-sided massacre on the weak by the strong." Infinity announced.

"The only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to be killed. Wherever oppressors have used their power by attacking those who are powerless, we shall appear again! No matter how mighty or how strong."

"Those of you with power fear us. Those of you without power, rally behind us. We the Black Knights shall be the ones that stand in judgment of this world." They both finished, Zero holding his hands up in the air.


	9. Chapter 8

**Author note:** I forgot to mention this in my last chapter but credit for the name of CC's alias, Infinity, goes to the author Karichan-senpai and her story Who am I to You? I would also like to say that while I am happy with the length of my recent chapters, I am pretty sure that they are just flukes due to the content and I do not want to get anybody's hopes up that it will happen too often if not just for the sake of keeping this relatively balanced. Thanks to those who have followed my story so far and I look forward to your continued support and reviews.

Without any further rambling here is the next chapter of All For You!

* * *

Chapter 8

Since the Black Knights had made their big debut at the Lake Kawaguchi hotel takeover and subsequent rescues over a week ago, Lelouch and CC had been focused on building their organization and making a name for themselves among the Elevens and Britannians alike. Most of their operations since then had concerned themselves with dealing with drug dealer, primarily those who dealt with the new drug called Refrain. Due to its ability to make people relive the past it quickly became popular among the Japanese, most of whom wanted to remember the days before Britannian rule.

The primary objective of these raids, according to Lelouch, was to gain the support of the people by showing them that their Black Knights would become protectors of the weak and would not tolerate the abuse of the masses. One of these raids had been particularly difficult on Kallen, who discovered that her biological mother was one of the many who had become addicted to Refrain. After a relatively difficult fight with a member of the Knight Police her mother was soon taken away and sentenced to several years in prison for drug use.

* * *

Lelouch looked up from his computer when he heard a splash, signaling that CC had finished her dive into Ashford's swimming pool. As the green-haired woman lazily made her way towards him, Lelouch turned his attention back to the list of applicants for the Black Knights. His expression turned to an amused one when he noticed a Britannian by the name of Diethard Ried on the list.

"Hmm, a Britannian?" he mused to himself. "He looks to confident to be a spy. An extremist perhaps?"

"Isn't it wonderful how the number of recruits keeps growing?" CC, who had floated over to where Lelouch was sitting, questioned.

"It was simpler than I ever expected. While I hate the Britannians, I refuse to engage in terrorist activities. That is the prevailing view of most elevens."

"Then basically they support the Black Knights, for the most part." The girl summarized.

"Yes, which in turn allows us to operate more efficiently as a whole. It is a huge help that the people don't report our activities to the Britannians.

"Plus, I heard that some group called 'Kyoto' offered to send us some knightmares."

"That, and the number of informants have increased dramatically. The Japanese can't resist jumping on the bandwagon, they hear a well phrased buzz word, and off they go."

"Hence the knights for justice act."

"Yes, well you know how everybody loves a hero, and what better hero than a knight?" Lelouch asked with a grin.

CC giggled at this and began to dry herself off with a towel offered by Lelouch.

"I doubt that is something that a real knight for justice would say." She teased with a smile on her face as well.

This only served to increase Lelouch's amusement as he also began to chuckle to himself. Once his accomplice had finished drying off, the raven-haired teen packed up his laptop and made his way back towards the dorm, CC following him closely behind.

* * *

The recently formed Black Knights and their new recruits stood in a darkened warehouse before their two masked leaders. Except for the lone spotlight that shone down on the two figures and their subordinates, the warehouse was completely dark and the gathered soldiers could not see into their surroundings. After a few moments of silence, neither Zero nor Infinity had spoken a word to the crowd; they merely stood there almost as if they were statues, giving nothing away as to what they were thinking. Tamaki, growing impatient, suddenly spoke out.

"Hey! What did you want us to come here for? I mean everybody is here and you guys haven't done anything!"

Zero looked down at the obnoxious man, as if he was examining a wild animal, Infinity on the other hand seemed to completely ignore his existence. After what seemed like another eternity, but what was really only a few seconds, CC finally decided to break the growing silence, lest she have to deal with the irritating man's outbursts again.

"We have gathered you here for several reasons," she began, "most importantly to show you the new equipment sent from Kyoto."

Hearing this, the assembled Black Knights started to talk amongst themselves in surprise. By the shocked tones it was obvious that they had no idea that the famed Kyoto Group had taken an interest in them. The accomplices allowed the chatter to die down before Lelouch picked up.

"While it means that we have received an abundance of supplies and weapons, I do not want any of you to allow this to go to your heads. This is not their acknowledgment of our skills; rather it is their way of testing us. Now, Infinity, if you would be so kind?"

As he said this CC pulled out a small control from a hidden pocket in her suit and pressed the button. Immediately following this the remaining lights in the warehouse came to life, illuminating the entire area in a harsh light. The gathered men and women all gasped in shock at what they saw surrounding them, nearly two dozen knightmares and piles of crates containing everything from ammunition to medical supplies and food.

Eventually everyone's eyes focused on one corner of the building, drawn there by three unique looking nightmares. The first one was a crimson knightmare with a large silver claw on one hand. The next one was similar to the other knightmares throughout the space with one exception; it had what appeared to be a samurai's helmet on its head. To the right of this was the final knightmare, resembling the 'samurai' knightmare, except that it was pure white and instead of being armed with the typical rifle carried by most frames, this one had what appeared to be a multi-barreled gatling gun.

Noticing the apparent interest in these three machines, CC and Lelouch made their way towards them, motioning for the others to do the same. Once they had gathered around these unique knightmares, Kallen turned to face Zero.

"What are these exactly? They aren't like the other knightmares here, especially not this." She asked, indicating to the red one.

"The knightmare with the claw is called the Guren Mk 2, and it shall serve as you personal knightmare." He answered, clearly amused by the small gasp that she gave in response to hearing this.

"B-but why me? I think that you should be the one to use it; we need the defenses to protect you. I don't—"

"Nonsense, you are the best pilot that we have here and as such I believe it would be prudent to put you in control of the Guren. I will make do with this one right here, seeing as it was designed to be a commander unit anyway." He interrupted while pointing to the black knightmare in the center.

"Hey, Zero! Can you let you best buddy use this one right here?" Tamaki asked as he started to try and climb up the white one.

"Of course not, that is my personal knightmare and I will not have you getting your stench all over it." CC answered, a slight tone of irritation apparent in her voice.

Tamaki, obviously depressed at being denied such a cool 'toy', abandoned his efforts and made his way off towards the other Burai along with everyone else, save Kallen, who was staring at her new knightmare frame with pride, and the two masked leaders. She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to face the mask of Zero. Blushing slightly at the close proximity, she took several steps back before answering.

"Yes, what is it?"

The only response she got was a red activation key being placed in her hand. She looked down at it then back to her Guren before finally turning her attention back to where Infinity and Zero had been standing, only to find they had both mysteriously disappeared. Shaking her head at the odd actions of those two she made her way over to where the others were beginning to eagerly and enthusiastically check their new equipment.

* * *

CC was sitting on the couch of the warehouse's office on the second floor, taking off the Infinity mask. Placing the mask down beside her, she looked to her left and saw Lelouch doing the same thing, leaning against the front of the old desk that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. Looking around the room, she realized that probably wasn't too far from the truth, considering the peeling paint and severely beaten-up furniture. She was interrupted from her thoughts by a certain raven-haired teen, who had taken that moment to sit down beside her on the couch, the only things between them being their respective masks.

"Oh? How bold, Lelouch, sitting so close to a pretty girl without permission." She teased to hide her surprise at their sudden closeness.

"W-what? I- never mind, we have more important things to discuss than you teasing me. Besides, is that a blush I see?" he smirked, amused about the sudden turn of events.

**"Oh my, CC, you need to be careful, wouldn't want your precious prince to figure you out this soon. Or do you?" **Abraham laughed.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Directing her reply to both of them as calmly as she could. "Now what was it that you wished to discuss?"

Lelouch sighed; disappointed that he couldn't fluster her anymore. He did, however, make a mental note to bring this up at a later time and possibly add it to his small arsenal of comebacks against her.

**"Come on, that isn't fun. Don't go and change the conversation."** Abraham complained. **"Why don't you just come out with it already? It would make things so much easier, not to mention entertaining, hehe."**

_ What are you talking about? I have nothing at the moment that I need to tell him. And IF I did, how would you propose I do so without ruining your little time-travel scheme?_

**"I see you are still in denial about it, give it time. And I guess you do have a point. Don't worry I will come up with a solution for you hehe!"**

_Wait! Don't you go and—_

"Um, CC? I was asking you what you thought Cornelia's next move would be, considering she will most likely give us some breathing time as respect for saving Euphemia." The boy interrupted her internal argument.

"I see, I believe it is highly likely she will go after other groups in the meantime to clear out any possible resistance for when she allows Euphemia to take over Area 11."

"Yes, that was my conclusion too, seeing as she is not the kind of person to lead from behind a desk. The only real question is who and where will she strike next."

"Seeing as it was the JLF, rogue faction or not, who was behind the Kawaguchi incident, it is likely she will move on their main base in the Narita mountains."

"Hmm, yes, I think you might be right about that." A grin slowly came to his face. "Say, CC, how would you feel about a trip to the Narita mountains? I heard they can be quite nice this time of year."

Before she could give some sort of witty response or make anything out of his comment, a knock was heard at the door to the office. The pair quickly grabbed their masks and replaced them on their heads, the backs closing up right as the door opened to reveal Ohgi and Kallen.

"Zero, Infinity, I was wondering what we should be doing right now? The new recruits are growing a little too excited and we have already unpacked most of the equipment." Ohgi started.

"Yeah, and I was curious on what our next step was too, seeing as we have all of these new weapons and knightmares." Kallen continued.

"Ah, excellent timing. Infinity and myself have just finished figuring out what we, the Black Knights', next step is." He said motioning to his partner.

"We will be inviting ourselves to a party the Britannians are throwing in the Narita mountains." She clarified.

"But isn't that where the JLF's main base is rumored to be?" Ohgi questioned, not sure he heard right.

"Precisely." Zero said simply

* * *

In a small shack in the Narita Mountains, two men were sitting at a table. The youngest of the pair stood up and walked over to an old radio that looked like it had been made during the Britannian invasion, dialing it in to the proper frequency.

"Sector 5 here, nothing to report." The sentry said in a bored tone.

"Understood, next check-in is an hour from now, out." Came the reply from the JLF command center.

After setting the radio transmitter down, the man walked back to the table where his companion and himself were in the middle of a fierce game of checkers. The door to the single room building suddenly flew open to reveal a masked man in a black cape with what appeared to be a woman behind him, wearing a nearly identical outfit. The two sentries quickly went for their nearby rifles but before they could bring them to bear on the intruders, a slit opened in the black figure's mask to reveal an eye with a strange blood red symbol in the center.

"I want you to ignore any suspicious activity on you watch." Lelouch commanded them.

The men's movements ceased as the geass quickly took effect, their expressions going from surprise to bored. They slowly lowered the machine guns and went back to their game as if nothing had happened. Having completed the first part of his plan, Lelouch motioned to CC to signal the Black Knights that they were cleared to proceed. While she busied herself with the mirror that they had brought along, he made his way into the small, heated hut and pulled out a book to pass the time.

After about ten minutes Lelouch noticed the immortal witch still had not set foot in the cabin, arousing his curiosity. Putting the book down, he walked out into the small clearing where they had parked their Burai. Standing a foot away from the edge of the cliff was CC, her mask off and at her feet, hair blowing in the slight breeze. From his viewpoint, Lelouch could not help but notice how serene she looked, he might even say captivating.

_If only,_ he reflected,_ she wasn't so damn infuriating at times._

As if sensing his stare, CC turned to face him, a small smile plastered on her face. Seeing that grin on her face sent gave the raven-haired teen a bad feeling, as he knew that she would most likely start taunting him again for staring. Much to his surprise, and great pleasure, she said something completely different.

"Lelouch, do you know why snow is white?"

She looked expectantly at him, waiting to see if he would be able to answer her question this time around. The only response she got was a blank stare that seemed to be saying 'are you serious?' sighing, she decided to continue.

**"Did you honestly expect him to get that this time around? He may be a genius strategist, but that boy has no sense when it comes to riddles."** Abraham chided.

"Snow is white because it has forgotten what color it is supposed to be."

* * *

On the summit of the mountain that housed the JLF's main base, the Black Knights were busy operating drills, which were being burrowed into the mountainside, and giving their equipment last minute checks. After checking to make sure that everything was going according to plan, Lelouch made his way to Ohgi, who was also watching the proceedings.

"Are you really going through with this?" Ohgi asked Zero upon noticing his commander.

"Our opponent is Cornelia, along with some of the best forces that Britannia has to offer." CC stated before Lelouch could get a chance to respond.

"If that is the case, then why don't we cooperate with the Japan Liberation Front?"

"Ohgi, don't you believe in me anymore?" Zero asked with a hurt, but obviously faked, tone.

"What? Of course I do. I was the one who asked you to be our leader remember?"

"Then there is only one answer to give." CC replied from the cockpit of her knightmare.

"Right."

All of a sudden the skies around the mountains were filled with Britannian aircraft, below them knightmares, vehicles, and infantry spread out. From their vantage point it seemed like the entire Britannian military had gathered in this area to wipe out the terrorists gathered beneath their feet. Cries of shock and panic could be heard coming from the resistance fighters as they realized that all of their escape routes had been cut off by the advancing troops.

"It has begun." Zero confirmed.

"As you can see, all paths of escape have been removed. Our only chance to survive is to fight." CC continued.

"Let me get this straight, you want us to fight the Brits head on?!" Tamaki exclaimed.

"Correct, it would be a miracle if we win this." Lelouch calmly replied.

"Zero, what are you saying?!" Ohgi demanded, just as shocked at the words he just heard as everyone else.

"What he is saying is sometimes messiahs must perform miracles if they are to be acknowledged. Therefore what have to do is create one, correct?" CC clarified.

Tamaki, much to everyone's surprise, save the two masked figures, raised his gun and aimed it for Zero's head. To further compound the confusion Zero pulled his pistol and pointed it at the angry man below him. After what seemed like the sure start to a gunfight, Lelouch shifted his grip on the gun so that it dangle by a finger in the trigger guard, as if he was offering it to someone.

"If there is anyone who feels like they can win without me, then I suggest you shoot me now. Since you have joined the Black Knights you have two options, you may either live with me, or perish with me!" he yelled so all could hear.

When nobody made any further moves Lelouch replaced his weapon in its holster and made his way towards his Burai, situated next to CC's white one.

"All right, everything is prepared. Black Knights, prepare to move out!" he called from his knightmare. "We, the Order of the Black Knights, will launch a surprise attack on the Britannians from the summit of the mountain."

"Our main objective is the capture of Cornelia, second princess of Britannia. Our breakthrough route will be opened up by the Guren Mk 2." Said CC, also safely inside the cockpit of her knightmare, weapons ready to engage at a moments notice.

"Kallen, use penetrating electrode 3, settle things in one blow."

"Right, activating gauntlet now!" she answered as she activated her Guren's radiant wave surge.


	10. Chapter 9

Author note: So here is the much awaited (for me dreaded) Narita battle. Hopefully I can do it justice, seeing as it is an important one. I apologize if it is rather pathetic but I cannot write battle scenes very well, so let me know if it needs to be redone or something and I will add it to my slowly growing list. I know that till now I haven't made that many big or important changes, Infinity not included, but here is when I start to do so. Special dedication in the next chapter to the first who correctly sees my first change (even if that doesn't mean much haha). I hope that you like the cave scene and my choice for CC's name, I think I did relatively well with writing it and for having Abraham mess with things like usual.

So now that I got all of that out of the way, here is the next chapter of All For You!

* * *

Chapter 9

"Activating the radiant wave gauntlet now." Kallen called out as she pressed the firing button for her Guren's main weapon.

At first there was no effect, leading to many of the men and women gathered on the mountain's summit to believe that the plan, that Zero had assured them would work, had failed. However, their doubts were suddenly swept away when the ground beneath them began to shake violently, a deep rumbling heard coming from deep within the mountain's bowels. After several minutes the noise and shaking died away, replaced with an eerie silence. The quiet did not last long, as the tremors from before returned with a vengeance accompanied by the sound of moving earth.

From their vantage point, the Black Knights could only watch in utter amazement at the steadily growing tidal wave of earth, rocks, and trees that swept down the mountainside, steadily increasing in size and speed as it went. They began to cheer as they saw the mass of debris cutting a path into the heart of the Britannia's encirclement, effectively dividing it in two smaller forces. The Britannians in the G1 command vehicle could only watch in shock and worry, helpless to do anything, as over 80% of their military might was annihilated in the blink of an eye. In the JLF control room, the technicians and officers were expressing similar confusion and also fear that the base might be destroyed in this violent mudslide.

The wave of destruction was not finished however as it swept into the city that lay far below, resulting in large buildings being swept away as if by the hand of god, smaller homes simply ceasing to exist. Despite the apparent disaster there were no civilian casualties, thanks to Zero's warning to the Britannians after it was suggested by CC that there was a chance that the avalanche could hit the town.

"Black Knights, the Britannians are in disarray, their force crippled." Zero called out over his knightmare's speaker. "The time to strike is now! All forces move out, the Guren will clear us a path."

A chorus of affirmatives filled the rebel commander's cockpit as the energized resistance fighters began to move to their assigned points. Accompanying Lelouch at the front was CC's Burai, Kallen in her Guren, and several of the Black Knight's knightmares. The Britannians, showing their superior training, had quickly reorganized and had begun to continue their advance, determined to avenge their fallen comrades and destroy the JLF.

All of a sudden, seemingly out of nowhere a group of enemy Sutherlands opened fire on Lelouch's group, catching one of the Burai in the center of the chest, disabling it, the pilot ejecting unharmed.

"Is Zero here? If so come face me, Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald, like a man!" the lead knightmare called out challengingly.

"Orange, is that you? I see they allowed you to remain in the army." Lelouch taunted.

"We would love to play your little game but I am afraid I don't have time, Orange Boy." CC finished.

Hearing all this only served to drive the disgraced Margrave mad with rage, so much so that he threw his rifle to the side and charged Zero's knightmare with his melee weapons at the ready. Kallen reacted quickly and jumped in front of the enraged pilot. She attempted to land a hit on it with the Guren's claw, only for the enemy unit to leap back and out of range.

"What is that thing? Is that what destroyed Carius's unit?" he asked no one in particular.

"Be careful! That thing doesn't look like the others. Do you think—" A woman behind him warned as she attempted to come to her superior's aid.

"Stay back! This is my fight!" he exclaimed as he made another attempt to attack Zero's Burai, which was once again stopped by the Guren Mk 2.

He panicked when the strange claw made an attempt to grab him and fell back, thinking he had made it out safely, only to be surprised when the claw suddenly extended further and grabbed his knightmare's head. The unfortunate Jeremiah could only watch in anger as his knightmare began to expand and glow red from this odd weapon, his chance at killing the man who had ruined his reputation lost. Several alerts began to go off in his cockpit as the system attempted to engage the emergency automated ejection system.

"No! Don't you dare eject! I can still get him, I can still get Zero!" he cried as his frame began to warp and heat up.

Despite his best efforts to avoid passing out and continuing the fight, Gottwald fell unconscious that the stress of radiant wave surger caused on the body. Finally the auto eject function activated, carrying the now unconscious pilot away from the battle. Once he had been dealt with Kallen moved to her assigned point, leaving Zero's squad to deal with the remaining enemy.

While she was dispatching that particular frame, the remaining members of Lelouch's group were in a heated firefight with the remaining Sutherlands, who seemed to be holding their ground well. When the unit that Kallen had been fighting exploded the fire seemed to momentarily slacken, the pilots shocked at the loss of one of their own to an unknown unit, one, a female, even crying out "Lord Jeremiah!" CC took this chance to move from behind her cover to open up with her frame's Gatling gun, spewing hundreds of anti-knightmare rounds at them, sending them scattering for cover, one of them being too slow to move out of the path of her fire and was subsequently destroyed, killing the pilot instantly.

Before she could concentrate on the next unit, she was forced to go back behind her cover by a volley launched at her, several shots hitting the left arm.

"Infinity, are you alright?" Zero called.

"Of course I am, it was just a glancing shot, no damage to the controls." she reported.

The youth chuckled at her apparent nonchalance in battle, only to be interrupted by Tamaki.

"Hey, should we call Kallen back? These guys have us pretty good."

"No, we need her to be ready at her marked point. It will be up to us to end this quickly." CC answered.

"Fine," the man sighed. "But how do you expect us to do that? They got us pinned down if you haven't noticed."

"Just watch and learn." Zero answered in a calm voice in spite of, or perhaps because of the situation.

As he said this, the raven-haired teen moved his knightmare's left arm down, grabbing what appeared to be a chaos mine, a weapon that was capable of sending down a virtual wall of large shrapnel capable of inflicting catastrophic damage on any knightmares unfortunate enough to be caught in its path. With a smirk on his face, he let loose this weapon on the dug in Britannians. This unexpected attack resulted in the destruction and subsequent ejection of at least three of the five remaining knightmares, the remaining ones escaping into the surrounding forest, heading in the direction that Kallen's Guren had gone.

* * *

"The purebloods have failed?!" a Britannian general exclaimed. "What the hell are they thinking?"

"Sir, Lords Jeremiah and Kewell were both defeated by an unknown close range knightmare. In addition to them several other units in the squad were destroyed when the lead knightmare, presumably piloted by Zero himself, used a chaos mine. As such, Lady Viletta thought it best to fall back and try to link up with the princess." A sergeant in charge of communications explained.

"I see, what news do we have on the princess?"

Euphemia, who had remained silent for much of this, noticed a cluster of unknown forces approaching her sister's position from the rear. At this revelation a panic rose through control room as they began to try and organize some kind of defense for their commander. The communications sergeant frantically sent a message to both Cornelia and Gilford to apprise them of the situation. Her response sent them into a further panic however.

"Yes, I know. I can see them right now; they appear to be colonel Todoh and his subordinates in custom units." She said calmly.

"Can you escape, your highness?" the general asked.

"Yes, I will make my way to point nine while Gilford and the rest of my men deal with these dogs."

* * *

"Infinity, you and I will make our way to point nine to regroup with Kallen. Everyone else will provide rear security in case those remaining Sutherlands from before show up again."

After receiving affirmative replies from the members of his squad, Lelouch, flanked by CC, sped off in the direction of the canyon where they planned to ambush Cornelia. By the time they arrived the two warriors were already at it and despite the obvious difference in the machines' capabilities, they were dead even, neither seriously damaging the other. Seeing his opportunity, Lelouch opened up with a quick burst, hitting Cornelia's Gloucester in the left arm while CC destroyed the left, effectively taking away her offensive capabilities.

"Can you hear me Cornelia? It is over, you lose; we have you surrounded so I suggest you surrender." Zero called out over his loudspeaker.

"And in case you are wondering you reinforcements will not get here in time." CC added. _That is of course unless they send the Lancelot again._

"You are a fool Zero. As a princess of Britannia, I will never surrender to scum like you, I would rather die than allow that to happen." The cornered princess stated right before she charged the Guren once again in what appeared to be a suicidal attack.

Before either side could attack however, a large explosion ripped through the forest to reveal a white knightmare, running at full speed to help the besieged Cornelia. After recovering from the surprise attack, Kallen moved to quickly engage the Lancelot while CC and Lelouch were suddenly very busy with trying to subdue Cornelia, who launched her slash harkens at them suddenly. Once they dodged this attack they pivoted to avoid her rush and opened up on her knightmare's legs, one being completely blown off while the other simply had its land-spinner shot to pieces. Seeing little option, Cornelia quickly activated the ejection system before they could close in to finish the job and capture her.

The Guren charged at the Lancelot, reaching out with its radiant wave surger to try and grab the white knightmare, who reacted by throwing a kick at her. This only resulted in the Guren grabbing the sand glider unit still attached to the Lancelot. The pilot of the white frame quickly leapt back and fired at Kallen with his Varis, missing due to her frame's incredible speed. Once the distance between the two had closed Kallen once again tried to grab the Lancelot only to have this attack met with him using his slash harkens to launch himself into the air.

The pilot fired another volley from his rifle towards the red knightmare, only to be shocked at seeing the rounds being deflected by the radiant wave surger. Taking this momentary pause to press forward the attack, Kallen pushed for one final charge, her claw being blocked one of the Lancelot's MVS swords. Despite not hitting anything this attack served its purpose, knocking the experimental frame back, the weight of it causing the cliff edge it was on to crumble away, sending it tumbling away and out of the fight. As Kallen moved to finish it off once and for all CC, who had convinced Lelouch to stay back, ordered her to help support the Black Knight's, who reported having trouble with a group of Sutherlands led by a Gloucester.

After the Black Knight ace had left the area, CC tuned her radio to a private channel, indicating Lelouch to do the same. Once she was certain that nobody could eavesdrop on their conversation, she asked Lelouch what he thought they should do next.

"Seeing as Cornelia managed to escape, thanks to that accursed white frame, we have no other option but to retreat for now. Would you mind telling me why you didn't let Kallen finish off that unit?"

"There was no need to kill him at the moment. And there is always the possibility of using him in the future." She replied, thinking of how he had fought beside Lelouch during the Battle for Damocles.

"Understood, but if he gets to be too much of a nuisance we may have to consider taking him out once and for all."

"Perhaps, but for now we should—"

CC was interrupted when a slash harken suddenly flew up from the cliff that the Lancelot had fallen down several minutes ago. Surprise quickly turned to concern as the Lancelot appeared from the edge of the cliff, its slash harkens pulling it up the steep drop-off. The pair had to scatter as the Lancelot fired at them with its Varis, the shot passing the white Burai by a few feet. As they recovered from the unexpected attack, the experimental knightmare charged Lelouch, its MVS at the ready. CC, seeing no other option and out of time, threw her knightmare in front of Lelouch's, the Lancelot's sword cutting into her Burai's right arm, severing it and resulting in the loss of her gatling gun. She quickly moved to grab the blade with her remaining arm, preventing a follow-up strike as the enemy pilot attempted to free his weapon.

"Zero get out of here, I got this." She called over the loudspeaker.

"Right, make sure that you come back, I still need you."

"Who exactly do you think you are talking to?" she asked with a grin.

"That's right, I almost forgot you are a witch." He replied with a small laugh, his uneasiness still apparent despite her assurances.

Just then the Lancelot released the MVS sword still being held by CC's knightmare and pulled out a second, slightly smaller one and promptly dug it into her frame just, the blade passing into the cockpit and missing her by mere inches. Inside her cockpit, shrapnel hit CC, opening several painful wounds. As a last ditch attempt to give Lelouch a chance to escape, she activated the self-destruct system and pressed the ejection switch before passing out from the pain.

"C- Infinity!" the raven-haired youth called out, moving his frame to grab the pod before it could get away.

Without a second look at the now immobilized Lancelot, Lelouch sped away from the scene, ejection pod clutched in his Burai's arms. After a few minutes of running non-stop, he stopped in front of a cave and gently placed CC's cockpit down on the ground. After he climbed out of his own frame, he quickly removed her from the pod, paying no attention to the blood, and moved her into the cave. He lay he down near a pool of cool water that had collected over the years and began to treat her wounds as best he could.

"Just who is this girl? She can't be human; she recovers from wounds in ways that are beyond normal. She was shot in the head in Shinjuku yet she appears to be fine." He mused to himself. "Clovis confined her for experiments, so she isn't connected to Britannia. He vitals do appear to be normal for now, I need to get a blood analysis done later to get more information."

Just then CC stirred a little without waking, her mouth moving, as if trying to say something. Curious, Lelouch leaned down to try and listen to what she was trying to say.

"What is it CC?" he asked, not sure if she could hear him, but deciding to try anyway.

"My name, C-Cera Corabelle," she whispered quietly, a small smile gracing her lips. "You finally called me by my real name."

It would appear she was dreaming about some distant memory, of whom or what Lelouch could not even begin to guess. The youth was absolutely shocked at hearing her reveal her name, although involuntarily, to him. He just sat there, his back to her, contemplating this new development, wondering whether he should reveal this to her when she woke up and if she would be angry if he did. He did not have to wait long to find out as he heard the green-haired woman moving around behind him. He turned around, violet eyes meeting gold, nothing being said for a moment. Finally CC began, facing her head down slightly, breaking the contact.

"Did I say anything while I was out?" she asked, both hoping that she was had and hadn't said what she had last time.

"Yes," he said, pausing before continuing. "You told me your name, Cera."

He turned around and walked over to pool of water before he spoke again.

"It is a good time to say this, you saved me today, I am only going to say this once so thank you."

"Then as a way of showing your thanks can I ask you a favor? Would you say my name again, with tenderness, like you treasure it in your heart?" she asked almost hesitantly.

"Very well, thank you, Cera Corabelle"

At the sound of her name coming from his mouth CC felt her heart flutter slightly, a small and content smile once again gracing her lips. She could swear she even felt a single tear being shed from the happiness she felt then and there; in that moment she could completely appreciate the fact that she had a second chance to be with the man in front of her.

Lelouch, who had been watching her reaction up till now, could not help but think that the woman in front of him looked captivating when she was happy and made a mental note to make sure he would see her like this again. After deciding that enough time had passed, Lelouch walked back over to CC and offered her a hand.

"Come, we need to go outside, while you were unconscious I contacted Kallen and ordered her to come escort us back to the others."

"I see, you think of everything don't you?" she replied, back to her usual self.

"Of course, I am the mastermind Zero after all. I will be waiting outside for you, come out when you are back in your costume." He said, referring to her current state of dress, or rather undress, consisting of only her white undershirt and shorts.

With that he turned away and walked out, as he replaced his Zero mask. When he gone a familiar and annoying voice filled CC's head.

**"So, that went well. I'm almost surprised that he was able to reduce you to an excited schoolgirl by just saying your name. What do you think the next step will be?**"

"I think that it would be a good idea to try and enroll in Ashford, considering Mao should be making his move soon. I can probably convince Lelouch to use his geass to gain the necessary cover and papers."

**"Ah, so you are deciding to take my advice again, huh? Or is it because you want to be closer to your boyfriend?"** Abraham teased.** "And aren't you forgetting that the Charles still needs you for Ragnarok?" **

"I am not, if my memory serves me correctly he does not know that he needs my code yet. And even if he did, he does not know where I am, thanks to Clovis's 'experiment'."

By now she had finished getting her Infinity outfit and mask on and began walking towards the cave entrance. She noticed that Kallen's Guren was now beside Lelouch's Burai, the two of them discussing the surprise attack by the Lancelot and what the next move would be. Kallen, noticing CC's approach turned towards her, giving her a nod of acknowledgement at her apparent skill.

"Infinity, lets get back to base, we have much to discuss. You will ride in my knightmare, with me, while Kallen provides security." Zero stated, walking off to his cockpit lift.

"Understood."


	11. Chapter 10

**Author note:** Hello again, my faithful readers. First off I would like to say thanks for the feedback on the last battle, I was surprised that you actually thought I did a good job on it, I hate writing those. Secondly, although I am sure some might have noticed it, nobody actually said the first change *gasps* so I will just say it now; Shirley's dad did not die at Narita like he did in the anime. Sorry for those who actually like her, but I hate that girl so I decided to remove that bit so I can avoid her even more and so she doesn't kiss Lelouch (damn sunrise for that).

I apologize for this being a shorter chapter but I wanted to get this out to help lay some groundwork for later and it really didn't have much more I could go on (might fix that later). I must also apologize since I will probably be slower with getting chapters out for a bit since I am getting assigned massive end of term exams in college now, so there may be a week with nothing at all, but I will try to avoid that.

**To fbiuzz:** You are indeed correct, I did forget that. I shall make sure to put that in when I go over previous chapters sometime in the future to correct/improve them. Thanks for heads up on that, your criticism is always welcome, as is anybody else's, this story is for me as much as it is for you guys, so feel free to keep pointing things out like that or giving some (relatively) tough reviews when I mess up.

Now that I finally stopped mindlessly rambling, here is the next installment of All For You!

* * *

Chapter 10

"You what?!" Lelouch cried out in shock, nearly falling out of his chair in the process.

"I said I want you to help me enroll in Ashford with you." CC replied calmly from her normal position on the teen's bed.

"Absolutely not! I cannot risk allowing you to run around and being seen by the Britannians. If that were to happen there is a good possibility I will be brought in for questioning and they will find out about our 'activities'."

"And here I thought you were concerned about my well-being." The immortal said, a mock hurt expression on her face. "You don't have to worry about them finding me, there is only a small group of scientists who are even aware of my existence and they wouldn't dare tell the military or police about me."

"And why is that? Wait, don't tell me—" he paused.

"Precisely, the things they did to me during their 'experiments' are considered illegal and inhumanly cruel, even by Britannian standards." She said with genuine hurt and sadness as she once again recalled the humiliating, degrading, and painful things she had endured at their hands.

A silence hung in the room as Lelouch digested this information, sure he had his hunches about her time in captivity, but to actually hear these confirmed by the young woman made him feel remorseful, protective even. And it was this feeling that only reinforced his resolve to deny her request. CC, sensing what was going on in the head of her accomplice, the man she loved, decided to move over to him and wrap her arms around his back, much like she did in the past when he was in conflict with himself. Lelouch, who had not noticed her approach until he felt her arms around him, turned to face her, violet meeting gold for the first time since the events in the cave. He sighed, his mind made up on the issue.

"Fine." He breathed. "I will assist you in enrolling here and getting the proper papers. I have the feeling you would have found out a way to do so without me anyway."

**"Haha, you have no idea how right you are!"** Abraham laughed in CC's head.

CC, who had figured she was not going to be able to convince him to willingly go along with her plan, widened her eyes in shock. Before she could speak however, Lelouch continued.

"I do have some conditions that I expect you to abide by, however. First, I expect you to avoid going outside of the campus, unless you are accompanied by me. Second, I do not want you pulling any of your pranks on the students or faculty, I doubt they could take it." He said this part with a smirk on his face. "And finally, you are to join the student council so I can keep a better eye on you."

The green-haired girl could only nod her head in acknowledgement, still somewhat confused as to why he had suddenly changed his mind. Shrugging it off, CC walked back over to her bed, taking a more comfortable position for the long planning session that they would need to ensure she would blend in seamlessly with the other students and, as a result, avoid detection by those who might still be looking for her.

* * *

Lelouch walked in the classroom Monday morning, feeling even more tired than usual, thanks all of the paperwork and details that he had to oversee for CC's enrollment. Sitting down at his desk, Lelouch decided to take a nap before class began. This was not meant to be however, as the ever-energetic Rivalz took that moment to walk up to him to discuss the new rumor floating around the school.

"So, Lelouch, have you heard about the new transfer student we are supposed to be getting today? I've heard that she is really hot." He said with a wink.

"Yes, I have heard about that Rivalz, but don't get your hopes up, I hear she can be quite a handful. Besides, what happened to your obsession over Milly?" the raven-haired teen replied, still trying, without success, to get some sleep.

"I do not have an obsession!" the blue haired boy protested. "Besides, the pres doesn't see me like that."

All of the conversation in the classroom quieted down as the teacher walked in, the students eager to see if the rumor would be confirmed. Silently, Lelouch prayed that she wouldn't do anything too drastic or damaging. The teacher took his place behind his desk and cleared his throat.

"Everyone, we have a new transfer student who will be joining us from now on." He began, motioning towards the door. "Now lets give a warm welcome to your new classmate, Cera Chloe."

Just then the door opened and in stepped CC, now dressed in the standard Ashford Academy girl's uniform. The room went silent as the boys just stared at her, much like a hungry predator eyes its prey while the girls were staring at her, judging the competition. CC did not seem to notice or, more likely, just not care as she introduced herself, unfazed by the attention she was getting.

"Hello, my name is Cera Chloe, it is nice to meet you all." She said in a calm, almost monotone voice. Apparently she did not feel like she needed to put on a mask like everyone else.

"Ok, does anybody have any questions for Ms. Chloe?" Upon finishing, every hand in the room shot up, with the exclusion of Lelouch. "Yes, Mr. Cardemonde, you may go first."

And then Rivalz, with about as much finesse as a Knightmare trying to thread a needle, asked the one question that everyone had on their mind. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

CC actually seemed to blush a little at this question, much to Lelouch's confusion. "Well, I suppose you can say that, Lelouch did make a very important promise to me."

The teen in question fell out of his seat in surprise; his face red with embarrassment while his eyes reflected a slight amount of fear at the sudden stares from his classmates. The girls seemed like most of them would break out in tears any moment while the boys looked like they were torn between killing him and worshipping him. Rivalz ran up to him and grabbed his collar, disbelief evident on his face as he interrogates the poor Lelouch.

"Why?! Why didn't you tell me you had a girlfriend Lelouch? And what is this promise she's talking about? D-did you propose?!"

This last sentence actually succeeded in making half of the girls, including a certain orange-haired girl, faint just as the door was thrown open and Lelouch's worst nightmare walked in the door, blond hair flowing behind her. Milly Ashford's face was one of pure excitement and glee as she stalked towards her prey only to be stopped by the teacher, who had just watched what was going on with an amused expression, when he decided that enough was enough.

"EVERYONE BACK TO YOUR SEATS!" he bellowed. "And Ms. Ashford, I suggest you make your way back to your own class before I get your grandfather involved."

"Oh well, easy come easy go." She replied nonchalantly before turning to Lelouch, a feral grin on her face. "We will continue this later, Lelouch Lamperouge."

Once all of the student had gained consciousness and gotten back to their seats, the teacher told CC to make her way to the only open seat in the class, right beside Lelouch, much to the teen's chagrin. Once the witch had taken her seat beside him, class began with the teacher talking about a lack of control in his students and Lelouch let her have it.

"What was that comment back there?!" he growled quietly enough to go unnoticed by the others.

"Oh? So was I wrong in saying that you made an important promise to me about our contract?" she replied with a smirk.

"**Yes. Yes you were, but it was entertaining." **Abraham answered.

"Of course you were! Thanks to you, everyone thinks I am engaged to you or that I am some sort of playboy. Years of building this reputation may have been destroyed. And what was with that blush of yours as you said it?" he demanded.

"I don't know what you are talking about, I do not blush." She replied, as she looked away, another small blush growing on her face.

"**You have become an exceedingly worse liar when it comes to this guy, CC. And that blush of yours isn't helping your case at all. It's so cute, you're just like a schoolgirl."**

"Fine, whatever. But for causing that trouble I will not buy you any pizza for a week."

CC simply shrugged this threat off seeing as she had long ago memorized both his credit card number and Pizza Hut's phone number. The immortal witch was soon having daydreams of limitless pizza being delivered by none other than Emperor Lelouch. It was not long after this that CC became completely oblivious to her surroundings, including the still complaining Lelouch.

Realizing that he would accomplish nothing at the moment, Lelouch turned back to the front of the class, pretending to pay attention while he was contemplating how he would best control the damage done. Something that was confusing the teen however was the slight blush on CC's face when she had answered Rivalz's question, he had an idea as to why that was but he quickly dismissed it as being impossible, I mean there was no way she actually liked him like that, right?

And so it continued for the rest of the class, Lelouch wrapped up in his thoughts and CC occupied with a particularly interesting dream involving pizza, Lelouch, herself, and Cheese-kun. Once the teacher dismissed them, the pair was quickly dragged off by the rest of the student council, led by the perpetually happy Milly, who did not seem to hear the protests of a certain vice president. Only after getting to the clubhouse did Milly allow Suzaku, Rivalz, and Shirley to free the 'couple' from their grasp.

"So, Lelouch," she began with one of her trademark 'I-am-going-to-enjoy-this' smiles that usually ended up with Lelouch regretting he ever befriended the blond. "How is it you know this girl? Are those rumors I heard true, that you have a girlfriend and have been hiding her from me?"

_More like protecting everyone involved, if anything. _He thought before answering. "Of course not, CC was simply making one of her ill-timed jokes. Right, witch?"

"Go ahead and believe what you will."

"You have a nickname for her? How cute!" cried the bubbly blond, off in her own dream world by now.

"Um, Madame Pres? Maybe that is just Lulu's way of being friendly with her." Shirley suggested, not wanting to accept that 'her' Lelouch might have a girlfriend.

Suzaku, who had remained quiet up to now, carefully looking at CC, spoke up. "Hey Lelouch, isn't this the same girl that we met in Shinjuku? What is she doing here?"

"Yes, she is. She is an old friend that I met while her father, who has since passed on, was visiting my family and she got caught up in the panic. After we escaped, she told me she had nowhere to go so I allowed her to stay at my place for a while." Lelouch answered, looking at CC out of the corner of his eye to judge her reaction to the story. All he got was a slight nod of approval, which went unnoticed by the gathered student council members.

"Oh?! So now our esteemed student council vice president is hiding a girl in his dorm?" the blond chirped gleefully. "You better watch out Shirley, it looks like you have some competition."

"W-what?!" Shirley exclaimed, her face growing redder by the second. "M-Madame Pres, what are you talking about?!"

"Enough of that! We haven't even introduced ourselves yet." Rivalz butted in, saving any further embarrassment at the hands of Milly Ashford. "Hi there, Rivalz Cardemonde at your service, I work as the secretary for the student council so if there is anything you need ask me."

"I'm Shirley Fennette, I'm one of the members here and I hope we can get along." The orange haired girl said with fake enthusiasm.

"I'm Kallen Stadtfeld, its nice to meet you." The redhead replied meekly.

"Hello, I am Suzaku Kururgi, it's always nice to meet a friend of Lelouch's."

"I-I'm Nina Einstein."

"And I'm Milly Ashford, president of the student council!"

"Madame president, if I may ask you a favor, I would like to ask that CC be accepted into the student council." Lelouch said pointedly, more of a statement than a question.

"Hmm," Milly pretended to consider the question. "Of course, I can't exactly turn down a request from my subordinate, can I? Especially not when he is asking me to let his _girlfriend_ into our little group."

"For the last time she is not my- oh never mind." He gave up, figuring it would do no good to try and convince her otherwise at the moment.

"Well then, now that we have all of that out of the way, we have some things to discuss about planning CC's welcome party." Rivalz and Milly stated at the same time.

It was, Lelouch and CC realized, going to be a long day indeed.


	12. Chapter 11

**Author note:** Wow, two chapters in a single week?! I guess you can thank good 'ol thanksgiving for that. This is just my way of making sure I don't fall too far behind when I am cramming on my end of term exams. The way things look right now please don't expect another update for a while, possibly all the way up till December 12, if things continue the way they are right now. I am glad to hear that everyone liked my last chapter, even if it was just filler. So now that CC is Lelouch's classmate and people think they are in a relationship I will be able to make things much more interesting between them (let the torment of Lelouch begin!).

**To guest **_**Vampirefanatic17**_**:** haha, funniest comment so far (no offense to others) I agree sooooo much; she is a worthless character that gave me such a headache. I was cheering when Rolo shot her. Look forward to seeing further reviews from you if they are as entertaining as this one.

Now, without further adieu, on with the next installment of All For You!

* * *

Chapter 11

"That woman is a lunatic." CC sighed as she collapsed on the bed.

"Yes, I won't argue with you there, Milly has a habit of overdoing things. I did warn you that it might be chaotic with you 'transferring' in so suddenly." Lelouch nodded as he also collapsed into his customary chair, exhausted from the hours of planning that the blond president had made the student council members go through for CC's welcome party. "Regardless, I believe that things went as smoothly as they could after your little comment in class. I'm pleasantly surprised that she let us off so easily, considering she has been trying for years to get something on me for years."

"Are you still going on about that? It wasn't as if I actually said that we were together, you know. Look at it this way; if people think we are dating, you won't have to deal with all of those fangirls all the time, I'll even do it out of the kindness of my heart."

"How many pizzas is this 'kindness' going to cost me?" he asked, feeling his already dwindling account shrink.

"Good to see you caught on, boy. I would like two large pizzas each day for a week," the girl replied with a hungry smile on her face. "Delivered by you, personally." She added with a smirk.

For a few moments Lelouch seemed to seriously contemplate her offer, it would be nice to be free of those irritating girls, even for a while. And it wasn't as if he would be paying much more than he was already to feed the immortal's insatiable addiction to Pizza Hut. The only issue that he could see with agreeing to this would be degrading act of actually serving her the pizza, like some common butler, unbefitting of the rebel mastermind that he had become or the prince he once was. Finally he nodded his assent to her proposal.

"I suppose that is fair enough deal, I would like to ask that you don't overplay the role though, I would like to keep at least some off my dignity."

"Fine, fine." CC waved him off. "We should get to bed, we gave that meeting with the Black Knights tomorrow."

Before she could receive a reply she began to remove her school uniform, right in front of a shocked Lelouch, who promptly turned away, his face tinted red.

"What are you doing? I thought we discussed this before, that you would give me some warning before doing that."

"Oh? I figured that my 'boyfriend' wouldn't mind." She said with a smirk. "And you certainly had no qualms about undressing me yourself at Narita."

"Well to begin with, you know we are not actually dating, so don't start saying weird things like that. Second, just because we are putting on this charade, do not just go and change our agreements without my consent. And lastly it wasn't like I had much choice, I figured I had to treat and clean your wounds; it isn't like I looked anyway." The teen retorted, his face still slightly red from both the memory and what was happening now.

No more was said as the pair went about changing into their nightclothes and fell into their respective beds, exhausted from the long and hectic day. Within minutes they were both asleep, small smiles present on both their faces.

* * *

The core members of the Black Knights were seated around the coffee table in the living room of the RV that served as their headquarters. Sitting at the head of the group, as per usual, was Zero and, to his right, Infinity, both seemingly indifferent to the banter that was currently going on between Kallen and Tamaki about his lack of money management. While this was still going on Ohgi walked over to the leader and his second-in-command, handing the former a letter.

"What is this?" questioned the black-clad figure as he began reading the offered paper.

"Perhaps it's a love letter for you from one of your subordinates. Congrats, I didn't know you had it in you Ohgi." Teased Infinity.

"You might call it that but it certainly isn't from me, or any other Black Knights for that matter, its from the Kyoto Group and they want to meet us." The man answered.

Upon hearing that the semi-mysterious group was interested in contacting them, the other resistance fighters ceased all chatter and looked to their leaders expectantly. Sensing the sudden increase in attention, Lelouch looked up from behind his mask at the expectant men and women before him.

"So, Zero, what do you think we are going to do abut this?" Kallen asked hesitantly when he didn't say anything. "I mean this is what we have been waiting for, right?"

"Ya, Kallen's right, the big-shots in Kyoto want to talk with us about how we kicked some Brit butt back in Narita, shouldn't we see what they want to give us?" Tamaki continued, dreams of him riding in a shiny, new Knightmare already filling his head.

Again, neither of the masked figures said a word and simply looked at each other, as though holding a silent conversation between them. The group started to grow impatient, waiting for them to say or do something, anything. Finally, after what seemed like minutes, but in reality was only several seconds, Infinity nodded and both turned their attention back to their comrades.

"I believe that we will indulge our friends in Kyoto with a visit, see what it is they wish to discuss." Zero stated.

"We will however, not be meeting completely on their terms." Infinity picked up, much to the confusion of most of the members, several hands shooting up in unison.

"We will need to see more definitive proof of the power that they claim to have, so we will request them to change the meeting to better reflect that." Zero clarified. "Ohgi, send a reply to them saying as much, Lady Infinity and I have much to discuss. If you will excuse us."

With that the meeting ended and everyone stood up, the masked pair making their way upstairs to their shared quarters while the others began to discuss the decision to meet with their possible benefactors. While most of them, for the most part, agreed with the plan to change locations to prove the group's rumored power, Ohgi and Kallen had their reservations about it, fearing that it might change Kyoto's mind. In the end, they decided, they would follow the enigmatic pair as long as they provided a real chance to accomplish their goals.

* * *

Zero and Infinity stood in the rain, awaiting the limousine that would take them to the meeting. Once the vehicle in question arrived, the driver stepped out and walked over to the two, looking around for the remaining core members.

"I was told that my master would be expecting you and your subordinates, where are they?" he directed at Zero.

Instead of receiving a reply from the black-clad figure, he was answered by Infinity. "They are providing security to make sure we are not disturbed. They should be arriving here any moment.

As if to prove her point, out of the mists, one by one, walked the other members of the group, save Kallen, who claimed that she could not miss a test at her school if she wished to remain under the radar. After the proper introductions were made everyone piled up in the back of the limo. For the duration of the ride it was absolutely silent, neither the driver nor passengers making any noise; the reason being quite simple, there was nothing to be said as each person was caught up in his or her own thoughts.

The vehicle suddenly lurched, much to the surprise of the Black Knights. After the upward movement had ceased, the driver let them out and he indicated that they should walk down the nearest corridor. Once he had walked off in the opposite direction, they followed Zero and Infinity, both of whom had already began the journey down the previously indicated hallway. The reason as to why they felt the ascending motion was suddenly crystal clear as they walked past a large picture window that displayed a breathtaking view of Mt. Fuji and the sakuradite mines below. The core members were awestruck at the view of an area that was off-limits to elevens, an area that was once considered sacred and beautiful but was now, like the people that revered it, had been stripped of its identity and enslaved by the conquerors.

"So this is the true power of the Kyoto Group, if we were caught here we would be sentenced to death." One of the men remarked quietly, some of the others nodding their heads in agreement.

"Impressive isn't it?" a voice called behind them, making the gawking men and women jump slightly. "Once the pride of our nation, Mt. Fuji still holds a certain mystique to it, despite the Britannians desecrating it so."

Quickly everyone turned around only to notice that they weren't in the corridor anymore, as they thought, but rather in a large room that was covered in pipes and shrouded in darkness. In the center and at the far end of the room was what almost looked like a shrine with a curtain, the form a man could be seen behind it, but no details could be discerned.

"Zero, Infinity, thank you for coming, I am sure that what I have to discuss would be most interesting and beneficial to you and you group. However, before we begin, I would like to ask you to remove both of your masks, as a sign of trust."

"What? Sir, I can assure you that these two have more than proven themselves capable and loyal to the cause without revealing their identities, certainly that is enough." Ohgi protested, moving in front of them slightly.

"Ya, and you talk about trust but you're hiding your face too, so I don't see the problem with these guys doing the same." Tamaki pressed smugly.

"Yes, while that may be true, I have reason to hide my face but I simply cannot trust two people if they will not give me the courtesy of showing their faces." The hidden man replied coolly before snapping his fingers, which signaled hidden Burai to rush in, weapons leveled on the group. "Now then, Infinity, I ask that you remove Zero's mask and then for Zero to do the same to Lady Infinity."

Infinity simply shrugged and moved in front of Zero and began to remove the mask from the leader's head. Curiosity quickly turned to shock as, once the mask was completely off, none other than Kallen was standing there in the Zero outfit.

"Zero is a woman?" the man asked, thoroughly confused.

All of a sudden one of the Burai overlooking the Black Knights sprung into action, knocking the one beside its weapon away before quickly hitting another in the arm before it could react. Once the other knightmares were out of the fight, it leveled its rifle on the shrine, the man inside, and the two guards, who had since drew their pistols and took aim at the frame. The shock at this apparent betrayal was compounded by even more confusion as the cockpit began to open, revealing none other than the real Zero, a small button in his hand.

Before the guards could fire, the man yelled at them. "Stop you fools! That trigger he holds there is linked to that rifle aimed right at us, one move and he will fire."

"Excellent, I see I am not dealing with a fool." Lelouch called before turning slightly to the redhead. "And thank you Kallen, for playing the role of myself so well, I knew I could count on you."

"Right, just don't get in the habit of doing that too often, this suit isn't built for a girl, you know."

"**Tell that to CC, she could wear it just fine. Then again, she isn't as big in some—"**

"Noted, now can we get on with the matter at hand? I'm sure that there are many questions that need to be answered. Aren't I right, Taizo Kirihara, of Kirihara Industries?" CC said, effectively cutting off the deity in her head.

"Anyone who can identify Lord Kirihara must be eliminated!" one of the guards yelled, aiming his pistol at Infinity.

"That is enough." Kirihara said as he lifted the veil obscuring his face to reveal and elderly man in traditional clothing. "Tell me, how did you know who I was?"

"I had several possibilities for who I would be meeting, but I did not know until I saw you hear moments ago." Lelouch answered as he lowered himself to the ground. "I am glad to be dealing with someone I know, however."

Walking up to the aging businessman, Lelouch removed his mask, causing Kirihara's eyes to widen before breaking into laughter. "I see the seed that I planted ten years ago has blossomed. May I ask you who Lady Infinity is?"

"She is a personal friend and I trust her with my life." The former prince replied simply.

"I see, then am I to assume you are embarking on the path of destruction?"

"If that is where it takes me, so be it. My hands have been bloodied for some time now." Lelouch answered with a smirk as he turned around, replacing his mask as he did.

"Very well, you can expect my full support from now on. And Ohgi, follow this man; he is a true enemy of Britannia. I cannot tell you who he is or why he fights, his identity must be kept secret at all costs, do not forget that and I shall make sure that you will get anything you need."

"Y-yes sir. I'll make sure to do that." The former terrorist leader answered quickly.

With all business concluded, Zero and Infinity led the way back to the waiting car that would take them back to the original meeting point, and from there they would make the way back to 'base' via a 'borrowed' truck.

* * *

"I told you my buddy Zero would get us what we needed, with him and his mistress- I mean lady Infinity, we can kick those Brits out in no time!" Tamaki cried, correcting himself when confronted with what could only be glares from both Lelouch and CC, which were intimidating even behind the impenetrable mask visors.

"You're right about that. I am curious though about something you two, why did you choose to have Kallen pretend to be Zero?" Ohgi asked.

"Ya, I never did get a real answer why you thought I should be the one to take your place, I mean couldn't Ohgi have done that or maybe Infinity then have me take her place?" Kallen pushed.

"I chose you because we trust you with our lives, and by extension, our roles when the occasion rises." Zero answered.

"Besides, if I had taken his place everyone might have found out who I was, obviously. And Ohgi wouldn't be a good choice, he actually has the build of a guy, which my partner certainly does not." Infinity chuckled, causing everyone to laugh at the unfortunate Lelouch.

"I am sure I have no idea what you are talking about." Lelouch retorted irritated. "Besides, someone has to have a fit build between the two of us, it certainly couldn't be you with such a terrible addiction to pizza."

"I will have you know that I have the ability to eat what I want without consequences. At least I can run for more than 2 minutes without gasping for air."

"Why you—"

And so it went, the two trading scathing remarks and witty retorts at each other, much to the amusement and entertainment of the gathered Black Knights and a certain omnipotent being. After a solid 10 minutes of good-natured bickering, the two finally stopped and broke out into light laughs. Not too long after, the little meeting-turned-celebration wound down and everyone headed their separate ways to get some rest before they took care of their first request from Kyoto, in several days time. Unknown to the two accomplices, a certain redhead was trailing them, determined to figure out their true identities.


	13. Chapter 12

**Author note: **I'm back! Sorry it took so long to get this blasted chapter out but like I said, I had no time to write (or really sleep haha) due to my end of term exams in college. But now that I am done with this term, I will have a bunch of time to dedicate to updating (at least until the next term starts). To make it up for such a long break I will try to do extra chapters in addition to my weekly ones, but who knows? Glad that people liked this so far but I feel there is much I have to work on, so please, take the time to review or PM me with suggestions, ideas, criticism, whatever.

I also apologize that the first bit of this chapter is so dialogue heavy, I tried to put in more but my brain is still a little fried at the moment and this is the best I could do. Hopefully I made up for that my experiment with putting in a dream sequence and slight fluff (?) but who knows, I am still learning and I have never done a dreamscape-type thing before.

Lastly, I am proud to announce that my partner, topearsXXVII, in this endeavor is back and editing chapters (this being the first in a while). Hope that you enjoy the slightly improved quality that should be noticeable in chapters from now on.

Without any further blabbering, here is the next installment of All For You!

* * *

Chapter 12

"So Lelouch, how do you want to deal with our admirer?" CC asked, referring to the red haired woman that they had noticed was following them.

The teen chuckled. "Why don't we just see what it is she wants?" he replied, CC noting the amusement in his voice.

After exchanging knowing nods, the pair suddenly stopped, confusing Kallen until she noticed their hands were moving for what she presumed were guns. Jumping slightly, she quickly ducked into a nearby alley and to see what would happen next, hoping that they hadn't noticed her, despite knowing otherwise.

"Kallen, we know you are there, just come out." CC called in her monotone voice.

A quiet curse was heard as the girl stepped back around the corner and walked up to the pair, embarrassment and frustration clearly showing on her face. She stopped a few feet away and looked slightly down, avoiding the looks of her masked superiors like a child who had been caught with a hand in the cookie jar.

"How did you know I was following you?" she asked disappointedly.

"It was fairly obvious" Lelouch answered. "To be fair, we didn't know it was you until a few moments ago when we stopped."

"Oh, I see." Was all she said.

"So Kallen, tell me, why are you so interested in finding out who we really are?" CC asked, playing along with the whole thing despite knowing the answer.

"I just figured that, well you know, the whole group is still curious why you hate Britannia so much if you aren't Japanese."

"So you figured that if you found out our identities it would give you a better clue?" Lelouch finished for her.

The red-haired pilot simply nodded, turning to leave but stopping when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She once again turned around, coming face to face with Zero, his mask only a foot away. An urge to try and grab his mask suddenly overcame her, but was discarded as quickly as it had come. Before she could question his actions, Infinity walked up to her partner's side before speaking.

"I recommend that we forget that this ever happened. Agreed?"

"Um, yeah sure." Came Kallen's reply, glad that she was off the hook.

Zero removed his hand and turned to walk away, Infinity giving one last glance in her direction before following after him. Shrugging off the disappointment at being unable to see their faces, Kallen ducked through the alley, heading for home.

* * *

"You know, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to let her know our true identities." CC reflected, collapsing on the bed. "She might come in handy when we need it."

Lelouch looked at her, eyebrows raised. "You think so? I suppose you have a point though, she could be very useful."

"Not to mention we should let her know now, when there isn't nearly as much that is at risk, rather than have her find out at an inopportune time." CC continued, thinking of the events of Kamine Island, during the first Black Rebellion, and Babel Tower.

"Yes, that would be unfortunate." The teen agreed. "Very well, I suppose we can let her in on it after the next operation. Until then we will just have to continue with things as they have been."

As the two began to undress and get ready for bed, CC began to think of the upcoming events. If she wasn't mistaken, not too long after the battle in the harbor, and subsequent sacrifice of the JLF, Mao would begin his twisted games.

**"That happened after that Shirley girl found out about Lelouch's secret and went to her father's grave in Narita"** Abraham stated. **"But if her father didn't die this time around, doesn't that mean that she would go somewhere else?"**

He was right. Although CC hated to admit it, there was no reason for the orange-head to go to Narita. And if that was the case, would Mao stay away? Or would he find some other way to begin his torment? Regardless of these nagging questions the immortal decided now would be a good time to warn Lelouch about his crazed predecessor. Taking a moment to prepare herself for the barrage of questions that was sure to follow, CC turned around to face the teen, who was making his way towards the couch.

"Lelouch, there is something that you should know, before we go down this path any further."

"Oh? This doesn't have anything to do with my geass or our contract does it?" came his reply as he sat down on his couch-bed.

"Partly. You remember how when we first met I mentioned there were other code bearers out there?"

Lelouch nodded before motioning for her to continue.

"Well just as there are other people who possess a code, there are those out there who have been granted a geass." CC said with a slight pause. "Before you I had another contractor named Mao."

"I see, and you figure he might pose a threat, correct?"

CC sighed. "Yes, I believe he is a danger to us and your plans. You see, he was an orphan boy in the Chinese Federation and everyone looked down on him because of that. After making a contract with him, I became his entire world, promising not to leave him and that he could count on me for support. Because of this he became obsessed with me."

"And then you left, leaving him without any source of stability. And now you think he might show up to take you back or to come after me for 'stealing' you." Lelouch guessed, seeing CC nod before asking. "So what is his geass exactly and does it have any weaknesses?"

"Mao has the ability to read minds of anyone within a 500 meter radius but his range decreases when he focuses on a single person, in other words he is the worst type of opponent for you since you fight with your mind." CC explained. "If I had to say a weakness I suppose it would be that he is unable to turn his geass off, which is a large reason of how he went insane."

"I see why you decided to tell me now; this Mao could definitely prove to be a problem if he does indeed try to contact us. For now we will just have to proceed with our plans cautiously."

The only answer the raven-haired teen received was a small nod followed by CC crawling under the covers of Lelouch's former bed and promptly drifting off to sleep. Sighing from his own exhaustion, Lelouch quickly followed her example and fell back, head hitting the pillow with an audible thud and within minutes of this both of the accomplices were gone, off in their own dream worlds.

* * *

Lelouch woke with a start as he heard CC quietly call out, fear and pain apparent in her voice. Turning his attention to her he realized that she was still asleep, tossing around as if she was trying to get away from something. He was suddenly overcome with a strong urge to protect and comfort her, although the reason behind this eluded him, and he got up, making his way quickly to the immortal's side. Upon sitting down next to her he noticed that a single tear was rolling down her face.

Sighing in frustration Lelouch proceeded to wipe away the tear and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Looking down at his partner, Lelouch could not help but wonder what kind of dream could be affecting her normally stoic and unshakeable demeanor so badly.

* * *

**CC's dream**

_CC lied on the cold ground of the Tokyo amusement park, unable to move, blood pooling around her from the gunshots inflicted upon her by Mao. The obsessed lunatic stood above her, gun in hand, with a feral gleam in his eyes as he began to on and on about how perfect she was and how they were meant to be together. She kept glancing at the bank of monitors behind him, wondering when Lelouch would implement their plan; she didn't know how much more she could take of the madman's insane blabbering. Mao, catching her shift in focus, looked over to the screens with a crazy grin plastered on his pale face._

_ "Expecting something to happen, my dear CC?" she cringed a little at that last part. "Perhaps that thief Lelouch to come and steal you away from me again?"_

_ He burst out laughing, all of his insanity and obsession present within that evil cackle. Turning around he walked out of sight and behind a corner, soon followed by the sound of something being dragged. Shortly after the lunatic had come within sight again, another, far more terrifying and heart wrenching sight, also came into view as CC saw what Mao had been dragging. CC let out a despairing cry when she saw before her the body of Lelouch in his demon emperor robes, a gaping wound in his chest from where the sword had impaled him, blood still pouring from the hideous wound._

_ Mao dropped his morbid load and made his way back over to the now broken and crying girl, the evil, insane grin growing as he closed in on his helpless prey, a chainsaw now in hand. As he towered over her and began to rev the terrifying weapon,_ CC woke up with a start.

* * *

**Real world**

"CC calm down, it's alright!" CC heard as she felt firm hands being placed on her shoulders.

Rather than calming down, the poor girl instead started to struggle more against the hands that now tried to keep her from moving. Turning to face the person responsible CC saw Lelouch's face, a mix of sadness and determination evident on his face. She stopped her struggling, much to the teen's relief, which was quickly replaced with mild surprise as she buried her face into his chest, choked cries of anguish and fear coming from her as he felt the tears start to soak through his nightshirt.

For how long they stayed like that, CC crying into Lelouch as he held her in silence, neither knew, but after a while the crying ceased and CC slowly backed away, enough for Lelouch to see her face.

"Are you ok now?" he asked cautiously, lest he upset her again.

"Yes, I think so. And Lelouch, I—thank you." She said quietly.

"No, don't thank me." He said almost sadly. "I wasn't able to do much, so there is no need to thank me for such an act."

"You're wrong. You have done a lot, more than anyone else has done for me in a while."

The teen just nodded, still feeling like he could have done more, despite not knowing exactly what or even why he felt that. A silence quickly fell over them for a few moments as CC recalled the events in her dream and Lelouch tried to reason out what just happened. Finally the former prince asked her what her dream was about.

"It involved Mao." Was all she said, before going silent again. Upon seeing his questioning expression however, she began to recount the events, stopping several times to gather herself.

Once she was done with her explanation, leaving out any mention of Lelouch's outfit, Lelouch put a hand on her shoulder and looked right into her golden eyes. "There is no need to worry, I will make sure that nothing like that happens. You have my word that I will stop him and no harm will come to you."

This did seem to calm CC more as she nodded and started to lie back down. As Lelouch turned to get up and go back to bed however, he felt a tug as CC grabbed his shirt. Confused, he turned back around to once again face her, mouth opening to ask what was the matter. However, She beat him to the point.

"W-would you stay with me tonight? Just for tonight. I'm worried I might have that dream again." She asked, unsure of herself and the reaction she might get.

"What?! Do you have any idea what you are saying?" the teen exclaimed as he felt his face heat up.

"I know what I'm asking is unexpected but I would appreciate it if you would do this for me. I really do feel like if I fall asleep alone I will just have that nightmare again."

With a sigh and disbelieving shake of his head, Lelouch climbed onto the opposite side of the bed and wrapped one arm around CC and they both once again drifted off to sleep, a small smile gracing the green-haired girl's lips.

* * *

The duo spent the next few days planning for the upcoming operation in Tokyo's harbor district and coming up with a plan for dealing with Mao, should he appear. In between these planning sessions they were also forced to deal with attending classes and the jealous stares of their classmates, resulting from the pair 'announcing' their 'relationship' several days after CC transferred in. for the most part they were able to deal with the whispered comments and stares with a calm demeanor but there was the occasional fan-girl or fan-boy who would attempt to confess to either of them and on each occasion the bubbly student council president was there to make the situation worse.

* * *

Before they knew it the day had come for the Black Knights to move in and cover the exodus of the weakened JLF from Tokyo Harbor. The resistance fighters were now gathered in a warehouse across the bay from the freighter that held the remnants of the defeated terrorist group, recruits and pilots scrambling to finish their last minute preparations. Noticeably absent from the group were the two masked leaders, causing some of the more veteran members to wonder what they were doing.

In another warehouse, several down from the one containing their troops, CC was helping Lelouch put his scuba gear on so that he could plant the explosives in the bay that would signal the start of the operation. Once they had finished she walked over with him to the water's edge, helping him carry the bomb. With a quick glance across the water at the gathering Britannian forces, Lelouch leaped into the water, trailing the bomb behind him. It took him nearly half an hour to swim to the pre-designated spot, secure it to the bottom of the bay, and swim back. By the time he returned to shore and was helped out of the water by CC, he was panting for breath, cursing his lack of physical stamina.

"Maybe you should work out more Lelouch." CC teased as they walked back to the warehouse that they had been in before. "Then you wouldn't be so out of breath after a little swim."

"Be quiet you witch, I just swam for 30 minutes dragging that damn bomb and scuba tanks. I would like to see you do that without breaking a sweat." Came the retort.

"You're just complaining now. And of course I would break a sweat but you look like you are about to collapse."

Lelouch just grunted his acknowledgement, effectively ending the argument and, although he would never admit it, with the victor once again being CC. The two finished the walk back to the warehouse in silence, both of them gathered in their own thoughts, Lelouch going over the battle to come once again in his head while CC was still concerned about Mao and her dream that she had several nights ago. Though neither of them had talked about it after that, CC still felt uncomfortable with the idea of facing him again, when there were several unknowns this time around.

Arriving at the warehouse, CC helped Lelouch out of the bulky scuba equipment while he peeled off the outer layer of his wetsuit. Finally free of the cumbersome outfit, Lelouch reached for the towel offered by CC and began to dry himself as she went off to get his Zero costume. While he was sitting there alone, he heard the sound of footsteps and moved to look at the source, thinking that CC had returned already. His suspicions were proved wrong as he saw, standing in the large open doorway, Kallen with a saddened look in her eyes. Luckily for him she was unable to see his face in the darkened room but just as a precaution he placed the towel on his head to better mask his face.

"Kallen, what is it?" Lelouch called out.

"Zero, why is it we are fighting exactly?"

The question caught the teen off guard but he was able to conceal this fact relatively well before answering. "We fight because we must. If we do not, then all of the lives lost up till now will have been in vain, and I cannot allow that. So if we must destroy more to create, so be it."

A look of understanding crept onto the red haired pilot's face. "I guess you're right. I'll be going now, still have a few things to prepare. And Zero?" Lelouch looked over to the girl before she continued. "I will fight by your side till the end." and with that she walked off.

"So that is your reason to continue fighting." CC said as she walked out from the shadows. "I can't say I disagree with you."

"You of all people should know my reasons but yes, that is one factor for why we cannot simply stop now. And I believe that after this battle is over we should go with your plan and reveal ourselves to her."

"That, like you just said, can wait for later, we need to get ready to move out and give our final instructions to our forces." the immortal said, handing him the Zero mask and suit.

"You are right, it is almost time for the fun to begin." Lelouch said with a smirk as he got up and began get dressed.

Now donning his masked persona, Lelouch followed CC out as she made her way to the gathered Black Knights. As they neared the second warehouse the commotion inside became more audible, the sounds of weapons being loaded and knightmares moving into the boat that would spirit them away and into the heart of the enemy's position. The noise quickly died down when the pair walked through the large cargo door and made their way to the makeshift stage in the center of the room.

"Everyone, before we commence the operation I would like to remind you that now that the JLF is all but defeated and fleeing, we are all that remains in Area 11 that can fight the Britannians. As such I do not want any of you to take unnecessary actions, just stick to the plan that we laid out." Lelouch began.

"As we planned, I will be in command of the units remaining behind, to provide any additional cover or backup to the main force, who will be led by Zero." CC picked up. "The time has come to begin."

"Black Knights move out!" both exclaimed, with a flourish of unnecessary hand gestures on Lelouch's part.

The warehouse once again became a hive of activity as the Knights moved to their positions and pilots activated their Burai. Lelouch settled into the cockpit of his command Burai and opened a channel with CC, who had just gotten unto her newly repaired unit.

"Have the Britannians made their move yet?" he asked, holding a small detonator in his gloved hand.

"Yes, their underwater units have just launched and the JLF ship has begun its retreat into the harbor. I estimate a minute before it is time."

"Understood, Lelouch out." He said before switching to the main battle channel.

A voice suddenly came over his knightmare's speakers. "Zero, aren't we moving out? The Britannians are attacking the ship!"

"Not yet, we aren't quite ready yet. If we go now we will only follow the JLF to the grave." He replied calmly.

Looking at his screen, he judged that the ship had gone the required distance and all of the conditions for his victory had been met. With a smirk he pressed the detonator and triggered the submerged explosives.


	14. Chapter 13

**Author note: **First off I would like to say Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays (even if I am a few minutes after it technically ended). second i would like to appologize for being later in updating but figured since i finished a day earlier i might as well release on christmas but then the internet decided to give me a big "screw you too buddy" and i just got it working.

I can't believe how quickly this story has grown in such a relatively short amount of time (15,000 views and over 50 favs, reviews, and follows each) so thank you for that, dear readers without you I would not be where I am. I think it is safe to say that this is the around halfway mark for the first 'season' of my story so here is when I will really start to make it my own by changing certain things.

Without further adieu here is another chapter of the ever-growing All For You!

* * *

Chapter 13

Underneath the surface of Tokyo harbor, the bundle of explosives that Lelouch had planted less than an hour earlier suddenly exploded, detonating the liquid sakuradite inside and ripping into the hull of the fleeing freighter containing the remaining leaders and soldiers of the Japan Liberation Front. Moments later a second, far more devastating explosion shook the surrounding area. The large vessel was lifted up out of the water as it disintegrated from the immense force of the deadly sakuradite, taking the JLF and boarding Britannians with it. In the blink of an eye both the ship and those onboard simply ceased to exist.

Both sides were in absolute shock at the apparent suicide tactics of the former JLF. On the Britannian side, soldiers frantically began to search for the pilots that had boarded the freighter before its descent into a fiery death. The Black Knights were also torn between anger and shock at seeing the complete obliteration of their allies, seemingly by their hands no less. With a smirk still on his face, Lelouch took this moment to address his subordinates.

"All Black Knights, hear me! The Japan Liberation Front has decided to commit suicide and take as many of the enemy as they can. Forget all other objectives, avenge the JLF!"

A chorus of cries for blood echoed across the radio as the rebels commenced the attack. As knightmares activated and took up firing positions on the shore, the low idling rumble of the hydrofoil ship picked up as the engines were put to their stops, sending Lelouch and his attack force, including the Guren, into the heart of the Britannian lines. As soon the transport hit the docks, a dozen Burai and Kallen's frame leapt from the deck hatch and engaged the surprised Sutherlands.

"Push their units into the sea before they can activate." Lelouch ordered, charging for Cornelia's Gloucester in an attempt to disable it before she could get into the fight.

Just before reaching it however, Cornelia had managed to power on the knightmare's systems and blocked his attack. The difference in skills quickly became apparent as Lelouch was trying, and failing, to land any blows on his opponent. She on the other hand, had no trouble pushing him back. Just as it seemed he might have to eject, the Guren Mk 2 intervened by blocking Cornelia's attack aimed for his cockpit. All three backed up, each waiting for the other to make a move. Suddenly Kallen charged forward with her machine's claw extended out in a threatening manner. The enemy princess, not one to be taken by such tactics more than once and aware of the Guren's capabilities, easily sidestepped the attack and responded by thrusting her lance at Kallen. Just as Kallen's attack did nothing, so too did Cornelia's, missing by a rather wide margin.

As the fight between the two raged on, Lelouch took a moment to examine how the rest of the battle was going. Despite receiving frantic reports of losses from those engaged with the Lancelot, it seemed like the rebels were holding their own. A report from CC's units stationed on the opposite shore stated that one of the scouts she had posted around the perimeter warned of additional Britannian reinforcements starting to mobilize and were expected within half an hour.

"CC, order our support forces to rally at the exit point to secure our retreat and make your way over to my position." Lelouch called over their personal channel.

"Understood, I'll be there in a minute."

Just as the immortal signed off to execute his orders, Cornelia managed to break past Kallen and made a move towards Lelouch, who managed to avoid the hit aimed for his cockpit, the blow instead striking his left arm and severing it. He quickly raised his rifle and let off a volley, pushing to put her on the defensive rather than inflicting any actual damage. He took this opportunity to launch his slash harkens at the shipping containers towering above him, quickly pulling himself above his opponent. From his new vantage point he was able to direct more effective fire down at Cornelia, managing to hit one of her landspinners. From this height and perspective, he also saw the reason for Kallen's apparent lack of focus.

The white knightmare that had caused him so much trouble up till now, the Lancelot, was now engaged with the Guren in a clash of blades and claws. At the moment both were locked together, the Lancelot's sword caught in the Guren's smaller dagger and the red machine's deadly claw was gripped by the white knight. Before they could pull out of their stalemate Lelouch's attention snapped back to his own, one-sided battle with his half-sister when she fired her slash harkens at him in an attempt to knock him from his perch. He responded with yet another volley, missing his target, but once again putting her on the defensive. Suddenly a barrage of bullets attacked the warrior princess's frame from behind. The machine was showing damage from the surprise attack as various sparks flew from the wounds. What could have done this? Who? From none other than CC, who had just arrived on scene and taken advantage of Cornelia's concentration on Zero's Burai.

Cornelia, with few other options, ejected from her Gloucester but not before turning it around and sending it on a collision course with CC's frame. CC was not expecting this move and was slow to react, hurrying to open up with her chain gun. Despite the murderous fire, the pilotless knightmare frame kept accelerating like a demon from hell, fire beginning to pour out its sides. When it was no more than 10 feet away, it finally succumbed to the continuous streams of fire and exploded, the blast doing significant damage to the white Burai and rendering CC unconscious from the sudden jolt. The auto-eject, sensing the major damage to both the frame and cockpit, activated and lifted CC away from the wreckage.

"Infinity!" both Lelouch and Kallen cried.

As Lelouch sped off to help his companion Kallen landed a strong punch on the Lancelot, sending it reeling. Before he could recover she followed up by grabbing his left leg, activating the radiant wave surger. With the white frame effectively disabled she sped off after Zero, hoping that Infinity was all right.

* * *

Lelouch stopped his Burai and quickly hopped out, running towards the crashed pod lying on its side. Upon opening the hatch he saw a sight that was reminiscent of Narita, when he had 'saved' CC, save there was no blood this time around. Gently lifting her out of the hatch he set her down against the side of one of the containers and pulled out his radio to order the immediate retreat of all remaining Black Knights. With a sigh he removed CC's mask and was in the process of removing his own when he heard a gunshot ring out nearby. Turning around as he drew his sidearm the teen came face to face with Kallen, pistol in hand, smoke still emanating from the hot barrel. Before he could ask her about the gunfire, he noticed her gaze shift to something behind him and her face took on a look of disbelief.

"It is rude to stare you know." A familiar voice said from behind Lelouch.

"B-but how?" Kallen muttered. "C-Cera how is it y-you are I-Infinity?"

"I don't know, how is it you are you?" the green-haired witch retorted.

"CC that is enough of the mind games for now. It would seem that the time has come sooner than we thought." Lelouch chided as he reached up to remove his own mask. "Hello, Kallen."

If it was possible for the redhead to become anymore shocked, it happened when she saw who resided behind the dark visage that was Zero. So great was her shock, she fell to her knees with shaking hands. The pistol that was held so tightly in her hand fell to the ground with a hollow thud. Lelouch and CC looked at each other in mild concern before Lelouch knelt down in front of the girl, who was mumbling to herself.

"Kallen, speak up." Lelouch prompted.

The Ace of the Black Knights jolted at the sound of his voice and immediately jumped to her feet. "How?! Before, at Ashford I spoke to Zero and you were there!"

"A recording that I had an associate of mine play. It was really quite easy considering 'I' was in control of the conversation the whole time"

"Then explain to me this: you're Britannian and yet you fight them. Why?"

"I'm afraid I cannot reveal the whole story to you at the moment. Right now all you need to know is that I despise the Britannians and all that they stand for."

"Fine, but what about you, Cera?" she said this last part with emphasis, rather doubting that this was even the immortal's name.

"I promised to support Lelouch in his cause for reasons that are my own. And it would seem you already suspect this but my name is not Cera Chloe. You can just call me CC."

"Now if you don't mind I believe we should take our leave before enemy reinforcements arrive. We can continue this at another time." Lelouch said, re-placing his mask as CC followed his example.

Before the still shaken Kallen could reply, both of the newly masked figures walked off towards Lelouch's damaged but still functional Burai. Kallen, remembering something that she still had to take care of before exiting the area, walked back in the direction she came from. After a minute she came across the prone body of a woman with silver hair in a pool of blood, a pistol caked with dust and dirt several feet away. Sighing at the gruesome job ahead, Kallen lifted the woman up and half dragged, half carried her to the breakwater and roughly tossed her over. For a moment she could have sworn she heard noises coming from the woman's body but shook it off, considering the idea of the woman still being alive to be preposterous after being shot in the chest at such close range, and walked back in the direction of her Guren to make good her own escape.

* * *

Lelouch and CC were in their private quarters on the second level of the Black Knights' headquarters when they heard a knock at the door. They both reacted quickly and reached for their respective masks, ready to put them on at a moment's notice but restrained from doing so because of who they suspected was at the door. Their suspicions were confirmed soon after when Kallen's voice sounded from behind the door.

"Its me, can I speak with you, Zero?" she asked, the last portion of her question understandably hesitant considering who she knew was behind the masks.

"Yes, you may." CC answered for Lelouch.

The pair visibly relaxed and once again set their masks down beside them as the door opened to reveal their ace pilot. Motioning for her to take a seat in the only unoccupied chair in the small room, Lelouch turned his attention away from the intelligence reports that he had been going over while CC simply lied on the bed with her ever-present cheese-kun doll.

"Its good that you came when you did. I was planning on discussing last night with you more" Lelouch began once she had taken her seat. "First off, would you mind explaining to me what that gunshot was?"

"It was nothing important. I just saw a woman walking towards you with a pistol and I fired before she could."

"I see, you did well to do that. Now what is it you wanted to discuss? I assume it has to do with last night?" It wasn't a question as one might think. With Zero it was never a question. His words were like a command.

"Yeah, I just wanted to know what exactly you're fighting against and how you seem to know the military and Cornelia's tactics so well."

"We fight because if we don't, nobody will stand up to the injustices of the emperor and his kind. We fight because we must become knights for justice to protect those we hold dear." Lelouch answered in a measured tone, careful not to let anything unnecessary slip.

CC looked at Lelouch as if to ask whether or not he was planning on telling her everything. When he shook his head ever so slightly CC decided to pick up where he left off, using the same approach as he did, bending the truth by leaving out specifics.

"As for how he is able to predict their moves, especially those of Cornelia, as a child Lelouch grew up close to the royal court due to his mother's position there. As a result he grew up with many of the princes and princesses there." CC lied.

"But if your mother was in such a high position then why are you here, fighting, when you could be a noble?" Kallen asked, thoroughly confused.

"I am not willing to discuss that at the moment. Perhaps in time I will tell you more about my past but we will just have to leave it at that for now."

Kallen just nodded then silently took her leave. Once the door had closed behind her, CC stood up and walked over to Lelouch's side and leaned back against the desk.

"Do you think that it was wise to keep the rest of your past a mystery from her, when she already knows everything else? There is always a chance that she may feel that we do not trust her." CC asked.

"And how do you expect she would act if she found out who I really am or even who you really are? Even if she did believe us there is a good chance that it would spread and either she or the Black Knights would turn on us. As I said before, I might reveal more to her and possibly to everyone else in due time but for now that is not an option. There is still some hesitation among the other members."

"I believe you may be underestimating Kallen's devotion to you and the cause but I will abide by your wishes. By the way, have any of your contacts found anything about Mao?"

"No, nothing. Apparently there have been no reports of anyone matching his description or name in the Tokyo area. We can only assume that he has entered the country under a false name and has been using his Geass to evade detection until he makes his first move."

"That would be a logical assumption. And it isn't like we didn't foresee this before so I am not all that surprised. Mao was very good at evading police in the Chinese Federation when I was still his contractor."

"Yeah, you are right about that. It was pretty reckless of you to leave such an obviously unstable child with such a powerful Geass alive though."

CC simply waved him off and walked back over to the bed, collapsing within its folds. Lelouch was suddenly overcome with a wave of exhaustion and decided to follow the witch's example by lying down on the couch. He looked at the wall mounted clock and decided that they could rest for a few hours before they needed to make their way back to Ashford before classes started, lest they give their fellow students more to gossip about. The last thing Lelouch was conscious of before drifting off was the muffled voices coming from the celebrating Knights downstairs.


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Lelouch woke with a start to the sound of someone knocking on the door. Glancing at the wall-mounted clock he noticed that it was 6 in the morning, meaning he had 3 hours to get back to the Ashford academy dorms, get dressed in his uniform, and get to class. Silently cursing himself for oversleeping, he put on his Zero mask and cape and walked over to the door, taking a quick glance to make sure whoever was at the door could not see CC's still sleeping form and, more importantly, her face; they couldn't. With everything taken care of to ensure their identities remained a secret from the rest of the Black Knights, Lelouch opened the door and came face to face with Kallen, already dressed in her school uniform, a duffel bag slung over one shoulder.

"I thought you might still be here, Lelouch." The redhead began. "Milly made me promise to make sure you didn't skip out again today so I decided to bring you both your and CC's uniforms." She hefted the duffel bag to punctuate her sentence.

"I see. As it so happens I was planning on going to class today so it is good that you came. I assume that we are the only ones here at the moment?" Lelouch asked as he motioned her to enter the room, closing the door after her.

"Yeah, everyone else is either at home or out. So, Infin- I mean CC is still sleeping huh?" Kallen replied as the black mask of Zero was dropped on the couch that looked like it had been slept on.

Lelouch shrugged. "That's right, I'm sure if I let her she would just sleep all day and eat pizza."

Kallen's eyebrows rose upon hearing this. "Pizza? You're kidding, she doesn't look like she has an ounce of fat on her."

"I wish I was but no, CC has a nasty habit of buying several large pizzas at a time, with my money." Lelouch sighed as he thought of how much of an impact his bank account had taken since meeting the green-haired woman.

Said girl suddenly yawned behind them as she climbed out of the bed, a sleepy expression on her face. "If you remember we made a deal about that and besides, if you really wanted to, you could stop me from ordering so much by cancelling your card." She reasoned. "Now if you are done complaining, I will be getting ready for class."

With that said, CC grabbed her clothes from Kallen's duffel and walked in the direction of the bathroom. For a moment Kallen just stared off in the direction that the green-haired girl had walked off, her face still displaying a slightly puzzled expression at how someone could eat so much yet maintain such a fit figure. If she was to be completely honest with herself, she was almost envious of this seemingly miraculous feat.

"Kallen?" Lelouch said, pulling the ace pilot from her thoughts. "Why don't you head back now? CC and I will be there shortly, so if Milly asks just tell her we were busy with something that came up."

"Yeah, sure." She replied, turning on her heels and making her way out of the room.

Once she was free of the confines of the trailer, Kallen paused to take a deep breath before walking off in the direction of the Britannian half of the city, thinking of what the bubbly student council president could be planning.

* * *

"Everyone, quiet!" Milly shouted to gain the attention and silence of the gathered student council members. "Alright, now that I have your attention I would like to announce a trip that I have planned for us."

"Excuse me madam president but what are you talking about?" Lelouch asked.

"Aha, you see my dear vice-president I realized we haven't been doing much lately and everyone seems so stressed since the hotel jacking, so I decided that we are going on a little trip tomorrow after class to a hot spring hotel near Narita for the weekend."

Most of the gathered teens cheered upon hearing this, with the exception of Nina, who was typing away on her computer as usual, and Lelouch and CC, who were still concerned with Mao's whereabouts. Before either of them could voice any objections, Suzaku and Rivalz grabbed Lelouch by his arms and dragged him out of the room, saying something about getting him packed. CC simply watched her unfortunate accomplice's plight with an amused expression before she caught some movements out of the corner of her eye. Turning around she came face to face with a grinning Milly and Shirley.

"Can I help you?" she asked cautiously, sensing something was awry.

Neither the blond nor the orange-head said a word and instead proceeded to push and pull her out of the room, just as their friends had done to Lelouch moments ago. Needless to say, the indignant cries and protests of the pair carried throughout the halls of the student clubhouse as their supposed friends forced them to prepare for a trip they wanted no part of.

* * *

All of the members of the student council were heading for the resort, riding in the small bus that the Ashford family kept for such occasions. Driving the vehicle was Sayoko, the only adult willing to chaperone. Behind her sat Nunally, who was brought along because it was the only way they could get Lelouch to go, him being unable to say no to his little sister. In the next few rows sat Milly, Nina, Shirley, Kallen, Rivalz, and Suzaku, all of whom were chatting away about various things. And finally, sitting in the last row was Lelouch and CC, both still irritated at having been forcefully dragged into this.

"Lelouch, your friends are really starting to get on my nerves." CC hissed at her partner.

"I agree with you this time, but I suppose Milly is right about one thing: we have been working hard lately, even if she doesn't know what exactly it was we've been working on." The teen responded. "Besides, it isn't like you didn't get anything in return for agreeing to go. I still can't believe it only took 1 box of pizza for you to go along with this."

CC scoffed at this. "It was just a small lapse in judgment on my part. I am still as much annoyed as you are, if not more so. We have more important things to worry about rather than some silly trip to a hot spring, like Mao. We should be spending our time tracking him"

Lelouch nodded his agreement and gazed out the window, now deep in thought about the Mao situation. While he was busy contemplating where his demented predecessor might be, CC decided to consult Abraham about how things were progressing.

_You've been quiet lately; I'm surprised that you haven't made any comments on this._

**"Despite what you may think I do have other commitments I still must take care of." **Abraham retorted.** "I assume you wanted to talk to me about Mao. You think he is still going to try something in Narita like he did before, right?"**

_That's right, if anything Lelouch having all of his friends here would prove to be even more tempting than before. And then the fact that Lelouch and myself are already here only serves to draw him out._

**"You may be right, considering how he liked to operate last time. I guess the only questions are when he will strike and who his first target will be."**

There was a pause as the two of them pondered those questions. After several minutes of thinking however, neither of them could come up with a solid answer to either. CC took a glance out the window and noticed that they were nearing their final destination. She quickly cut her mental connection with the strange deity and tried to forget about the impending confrontation, even if it was for a while.

* * *

After the group had arrived at the hotel, they had quickly checked in and made their way to their rooms. Situated in the first room were the boys, despite Lelouch's protests that he should be near Nunally at all times in case she needed anything. The girls walked past the boys' room and settled in the room just across the hall. CC while lying on her futon and staring at the ceiling tiles felt herself missing sharing a room with Lelouch. She stayed with him for several weeks now, as far as Lelouch is aware of, but for her, it had been 2 years. Now she shared a room with 6 girls including Sayoko. To be fair it was really only Milly and Shirley that she could not stand being around for any extended period of time, but the rest either left her to her own devices or, in Nunally's case, treated her as if she was an older sister, with kindness, adoration, and respect.

**"Who knows, maybe you will be her older sister **_**in-law**_**." **Abraham teased for the first time in almost a week.

CC, although she was embarrassed to admit it, blushed ever so slightly at the thought of her and Lelouch actually ending up together, despite her knowing how she felt about him for a long time now. _Yes, and what would that make you? The annoying and probably insane uncle?_

**"Hehe who knows, maybe you are right. But what would that make me to you?"** Crap, CC hadn't thought he would pay attention to that part and instead hoped he would be offended enough by the insane comment to leave her alone. **"I heard that CC. Did you forget I could hear every thought?"**

CC sat up now, any chance of her simply lying back and relaxing gone, thanks to her irritating companion. _Will you just let me have a moment of peace and sanity? I think I may be starting to prefer Milly Ashford to you. At least she can't read my mind._

**"Fine, you're no fun anyway. Let me know if you need anything, Code Bearer CC."** And with that the connection was once again cut, giving CC just enough time to notice a blond blur coming at her from behind.

Silently cursing Abraham for making her lose focus and thus awareness of her surroundings, CC gave a quick grunt as Milly glomped* her. Glaring back at the energetic, bubbly, and arguably insane blond, CC attempted to extricate herself from her awkward restraints, but to no avail; when Milly Ashford wanted to do something she would not take no for an answer, or in most cases, even ask. She would just do. Finally, after a couple minutes of useless struggling, CC gave up and tried another approach.

"Would you mind telling me what it is you think you are doing?" she asked her captor in as calm a voice as she could muster at the moment.

"Oh, I don't know." Came the irritating reply, a feral gleam in her eye. "I guess I'm just seeing why our stoic vice-pres likes to spend so much time with you when he doesn't seem to notice any other girls." Obviously she wasn't just talking about the story that they had given her when CC was introduced to everyone but the immortal decided to ignore the implications. Now definitely wasn't the time to bring the subject up.

_At least there's only one…_

"Yeah, I don't get that either. Lulu hardly talks to or spends time with anyone else at school besides us. And even then you're right by his side. You two are even gone on the same days." Shirley added, a jealous undertone apparent in her voice.

_Or not. There's the other one._

"Just like he said when we first met, I'm simply a friend from his childhood whom he happened to meet up with during the commotion in Shinjuku."

The looks that the girls gave her suggested that they didn't quite buy that but they simply shrugged and let it, and CC, go, figuring that pressing the green-haired girl further would do them no good. Finally free from the clutches of the grabby blond, CC stood up and stretched, intending to leave and find Lelouch. These plans were not meant to be however, as the others stood up as well when Milly announced that they were going to go hit the hot springs after collecting the boys.

* * *

CC had to admit it was nice to relax in the hot water of the hotel's open air springs. Not even the obnoxious chatter from the more enthusiastic members of her group, who were playing around on the other end of the spring, seemed to bother her at the moment. Beside her sat Nunally, obviously happy to be able to spend time with her brother and friends outside of school. CC decided this would be a nice chance to talk with the young girl, who she had become increasingly fond of this time around. The young princess-in-exile beat her to the punch however.

"Um, CC can I ask you something?" she said in her small voice.

"Of course, Nunally. I was actually hoping we might be able to talk a little." CC replied with a small smile although she knew it would go unnoticed.

The girl perked up upon hearing this. "I was just wondering what you think of my big brother. I just think you are a really nice person and both of you seem to be different when the two of you are together." Needless to say, CC was surprised to hear all of this but she managed to keep it hidden well enough to not show it in her voice.

"Its rather complicated, but I am indeed fond of your brother."

**"You're 'fond' of him? Honestly CC why is it so hard to admit your feelings? At this point I'm about to say to heck with the delicate balance of time and just go for it. You are driving me crazy here!"**

_Driving you crazy? I'm afraid that ship has sailed._

**"Good point. But remember, you're the one who is having a conversation with a voice in her head."**

"Oh, I see." Nunally said more to herself than anyone in particular, oblivious to CC's inner conversation. This clearly wasn't quite the answer that the young girl was expecting, but there wasn't much more CC was able to say on the matter at the moment. "Well I'm glad that you two are friends, I think it is about time Lelouch started being around other people instead of taking care of me all the time. Sometimes I feel like I'm holding him back and that's the last thing I'd want to do."

"You certainly have a good heart Nunally. Lelouch is lucky to have you as his sister and I would be happy to be your friend as well, if you would permit it." CC offered.

The young girl perked up significantly upon hearing this and gave one of her glowing smiles. "I'd like that a lot CC. I like talking to you, you don't treat me like I'm blind or disabled, you treat me like I'm just a normal person like you."

_I'm far from normal… am I still considered a person?_

"I like talking to you too Nunally." She said after a moment. Another thought suddenly popped into her head as she heard Rivalz, in the boys' side of the hot spring, speak up in a rather loud voice. "I wonder how Lelouch is doing right now?" She thought aloud to nobody in particular.

* * *

While the girls were relaxing and talking, on the other side of the partition that divided the springs, Lelouch was attempting to dissuade his blue-haired friend from doing something that he was sure they would all regret.

"Ah, come Lelouch why not?" Rivalz practically whined. "If we stand on each other's shoulders I bet we can see the girls over the wall."

"For the last time Rivalz, no. I explained this to you before, if you do that, you, and anyone involved, most likely end up suffering a gruesome fate at the hands of the girls. In addition to that, should you even attempt to peek at Nunally or CC, I will make certain you will regret it." Lelouch said with a low voice. It seems like Lelouch's overly protective side has reared its ugly head yet again.

"CC? Who's that?" Suzaku asked, unfazed by the suddenly darker tone in his best friend's voice as he was used to Lelouch's protective attitude towards the younger girl.

"Oh, um I meant Cera." Lelouch quickly corrected himself, realizing his mistake. "But I still stand by my previous answers, as I am sure Suzaku will as well."

"Lelouch is right. Peeking on them is wrong and I cannot let you do that to our friends." Suzaku nodded in agreement.

"Ah, you guys are no fun." The blue-haired boy complained. "Fine I'll just do it myself."

As the determined and apparently suicidal teen made his way over to the tall partition wall, Lelouch and Suzaku exchanged knowing glances. Like a hound on the hunt, Suzaku sprang up from his spot and took off after their misguided friend. Rivalz was in the process of climbing on top of one of the larger rocks in an attempt to get high enough to see over when he felt two strong hands grab his ankles and begin pulling him down from his perch. He let out a startled cry as he was dragged down and brought back to face a smirking Lelouch.

The muffled indignant and pleading cries of Rivalz Cardemonde were heard throughout the hot springs for several minutes before dying down, leaving nothing but silence. When the girls asked Lelouch and Suzaku about this at dinner, the two merely shrugged it off, claiming to have not heard anything; Rivalz's absence from the table did not go unnoticed by CC.

* * *

The trip had gone by quickly and without any further 'incidents', with the exception of the commotion caused when Rivalz was found the second day, trussed up and hanging in a tree on the men's side of the bathing area, a sock in his mouth. When asked why he was tied and strung up, the blue-haired boy took one look at Lelouch and quickly changed the subject, putting it up to a prank gone wrong. At noon, during lunch, Milly announced that everyone would have until 6pm to do whatever he or she wanted before they would meet up at the front of the hotel for the ride back to Ashford and the Tokyo Settlement.

It was an hour before the student council was to leave when Milly barged into the hotel room where Lelouch, CC, Nunally, and Sayoko were sitting, folding paper cranes and talking about anything from school to the weather.

"Hey, have you guys seen Kallen anywhere?" Milly asked. "I've been looking for her everywhere to get her to help me with something."

Lelouch and CC glanced over at each other and came up with the same conclusion almost instantly. "No, we haven't. If you want, we could go out in the city and look for her." CC offered, already assuming the worst and that Mao had a hand in this.

"Great, I knew I could count on you two. Try and find her before 6. I would still like to get back before it gets too dark out." The blond then turned her attention to Nunally. "Say, how about I join you since it looks like Lelouch is going to be running an errand for me?"

The young princess nodded enthusiastically before turning her chair to face Lelouch's direction. "Good bye Lelouch, CC. Both of you be careful."

"Of course Nunally. I'll make it up to you later. How about the three of us have dinner together when we get back home?"

"Ok, I'd like that a lot."

With that taken care of, Lelouch and CC quickly made their way out of the room, the urgency of the situation pressing them to hurry and find Kallen.

* * *

CC suddenly stopped her brisk pace in an intersection several blocks from the hotel, the damage from the rockslide during the battle of Narita becoming more apparent the further they went into the city. Noticing that his partner had fallen behind, Lelouch turned around and stepped up to her.

"What is it CC?" he asked.

"Before we go any further I think it best if we split up, that way we can cover more ground quicker and it gives us a better chance of finding Mao." She replied.

"You have a point." The teen sighed. "Very well, you will check the area north of here and I will take the area to the south. If you find anything, let me know immediately. And CC be careful, if Mao is really behind this he is doing this to get to you, don't take unnecessary risks."

CC smirked to hide the nervousness she was feeling. "Who do you think you are talking to?" She asked, repeating what was quickly becoming one of her favorite responses.

Lelouch chuckled appreciatively before turning and walking in the direction of the mountains and the more devastated part of town while CC headed off in the opposite direction for a block before ducking into an alley. After waiting a minute she came out of her hiding place and backtracked in the direction that Lelouch had gone in, relying on both her memory of the area and immunity from Mao's geass to trail Lelouch from a distance, using him as bait to bring Mao out in the open. Suddenly Lelouch stopped when his phone rang, causing CC to run into the nearest alley. Although she heard Lelouch begin talking, she couldn't make out any distinct words. But if the angry tone she heard was any indication it was indeed Mao on the other end of the conversation. After another few moments Lelouch ceased talking and what CC heard next sent a chill up her spine. The sounds of crazed laughter and the clapping of hands echoes throughout the area, dying off a minute later.

"Hello Lelouch, why don't we take a walk?"

Mao had finally made his appearance.

* * *

**Author note:** Well, there was the long awaited (at least for me) beginning of the Mao arc. Thanks to my editor/co-author topearsXXVII for coming up with the basic idea for Mao's appearance. I was really stumped. Hope everyone found this to their liking, and if so please make sure to leave a review; they really do help and they give me the motivation to continue. By the way, sorry for the cliffhanger but I could not resist doing it at least once haha.

*Note: A glomp is often predatory and lies somewhere in the grey area between a caring embrace, and a flying leap to tackle someone.


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Hearing Mao's voice again brought back a flood of memories to CC, some good but most of them bad. With these memories came the inevitable guilt that she still felt for making Mao the way he is, despite what he may have done to her, he would still be that lonely boy she had met from what seems like ages ago. Shaking her head and pushing these thoughts into the back of her mind for now, CC focused on the task at hand: shadowing Lelouch and Mao undetected.

Due to her distance from the two geass users she was not able to hear the entire conversation, only bits and pieces. The majority of what she heard came from Mao but she decided to try and block most of it out, lest she become overwhelmed in her guilt and memories once again, and instead strained to hear what Lelouch was saying. Although she could not clearly hear what was being said, she noted the calm and confident tone that Lelouch took, not unlike the one he used when he was masquerading as Zero, assuring her that all was going as well as could be expected.

After another minute or so the voices ceased and CC heard some broken glass crunch and some rubble shift, presumably from the two young men who had been speaking. Taking a quick glance around the corner of her hiding place, CC took notice of the receding figure of Mao, with Lelouch walking slightly behind the crazed man. She waited another moment before easing away from cover and hugged the wall, prepared to hide again if need be. Judging from the path they were currently taking, the final destination appeared to be the same gondola station that Mao had used last time around; not all that surprising, really, since everything else at this point remained more or less the same. There was no reason for it to change after all.

_No, not all the same__**. **_CC reflected._ This time he is using Kallen as the bait and his pawn in his twisted games._

Her suspicions were confirmed about ten minutes later when her former and current contractors stepped into the gondola that would carry them up the hill overlooking the battered and broken city. CC looked around for some way to get up the hill without alerting either her accomplice or the psychopath with him, fully aware that whoever would notice her would give away any surprise she would have in store. A smirk appeared on her face as she noticed that someone had carelessly left a scooter unattended with the keys still in the ignition.

_How fortunate…and unfortunate for this poor soul. Need not worry, for it will not be in vain._

After hopping on and starting the small motor, she sped off towards the small access road that she recalled would take her all the way up to the next station, where the encounter would take place.

* * *

"So what you've told me was a lie after all." Lelouch muttered as he looked down at the chessboard situated between him and his opponent. Despite his best attempts, he was severely outmatched and at a significant disadvantage, both on the board and in the situation in general.

Mao just gave off one of his crazed laughs while clapping his hands. "Nope, not at all! I guess this is what you call beginner's luck, right Lelouch?"

Lelouch said nothing and his thoughts turned to wondering where CC was at the moment. Surely her presence would be able to turn the tables around.

"Yes, where is my dear CC exactly? I'm missing her terribly."

Lelouch's brows furrowed and a frown tugged at the corners of his lips. He slightly cringed at the thought of this maniac getting his hands on his accomplice, his friend. There was no way he was going to let her fall into Mao's grasp, not now, not ever.

"Oh, come now, that isn't nice. Not nice at all."

The gondola cabin began to slow as it neared its final destination. Mao stood up and moved over towards the door, Lelouch's eyes following the psychotic geass user's movements carefully, looking for the slightest indication of danger. His attention was suddenly drawn to the window however, when he caught a flash of red out of the corner of his eye. His face took on a look of relief upon seeing Kallen safe and sound, but his relief was short lived when he saw what was in her hand. Aimed directly at him was the barrel of a pistol, her aim wavering slightly, betraying the calm and composed expression that the redhead held.

Lelouch turned to Mao, who started cackling and clapping. "You bastard what did you do to her?"

"Oh, I didn't do anything Lulu" He mocked. "I just told her all about you, the _real_ you."

Before Lelouch could open his mouth to curse at the maniac, Kallen spoke up, her voice devoid of emotion. Her ocean-blue eyes told otherwise. A hint of what appeared to betrayal and sadness hid under her determination. When she spoke, that same mix of hurt and confusion laced her words.

"Lelouch, tell me, why is it you really fight? Are you sure this all isn't just a game to you? That we aren't just pawns to you? You knew how important this war is to us, all of us, yet you used me and my friends for your own gain? You were our leader! You gave us hope and we trusted you!"

"What?" This caught Lelouch off guard; apparently Mao had used his geass to look into Kallen's insecurities about the war, which Lelouch was certain he had quelled. "I fight because I must, in order to protect those important to me, those who cannot protect themselves. And because of this I would never use someone just to satisfy my own purposes, especially not one so cruel as a game."

Mao clapped yet again, which caused Lelouch to whirl around, hands trembling in rage. "My, my, don't you have a way with words Lulu?" His gaze then shifted slightly to the poor girl behind Lelouch.

"But those are just pretty words. How can you be sure he isn't just saying nonsense to save himself? How sure are you that he isn't keeping any more secrets from you, his so-called beloved ally? And as a beloved ally, are you not entitled to learn of such secrets? You discovered his well-kept identity merely on accident. He had no intention of telling you or anyone else. Don't you think he should pay for his wrong-doings?"

Lelouch turned his attention towards Kallen once again, taking a few tentative steps toward her. "Kallen, step away from him and come with me. Let's go back to—"

A hot bullet sped by, stopping whatever he was doing. The bullet flew mere inches past his head; any closer and he would have been killed on the spot. Lelouch stumbled back in shock and nearly fell down the stairs as he was reduced to one knee to gain his balance, shock and disbelief plastered across his face.

"J-just stay back Lelouch!" Kallen yelled, her hands trembling now. "I-I'm not sure I can trust you; you lied to me before and you might do it again, so just stay back."

"Yes, yes that's right, he did lie to you Kallen. He used you and the Black Knights for his own selfish reasons and gave nothing back in return. And liars must be punished, shouldn't they?" Mao taunted from behind.

"Shut up, you scum." Lelouch growled at the crazed man. "Kallen, we're friends right? And friends trust each other, right? I trust you with my life and my secret, as does CC. Shooting me here would betray that trust." He shouted, almost pleadingly. His worked furiously to undo the damage done by the white-haired man standing over him.

Kallen's face was an unreadable mask of emotions. However, slowly the mask began to crack and spill its contents. Tears welled up in her eyes and streaked her face as they trailed down her cheeks. Overwhelmed and confused, she dropped the gun and threw her hands up to her face. She began shaking and fell back onto the stairs, choked sobs escaping in regular intervals. Lelouch cautiously made his way over to his friend and comrade while Mao shook his head at his crumbling pawn in disappointment.

"What is up with this girl? I can't read anything clearly." He mused to himself as he turned back for the gondola car. "Oh well, I guess if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."

Mao removed the rifle from a concealed duffel bag he had placed behind one of the seats. With a bored expression he hefted it up and took deliberate aim at his foe. With a small smile playing on his lips a shot rang out and pierced the air.

* * *

CC was pushing the old scooter as fast as it would go in an attempt to reach the hill's summit in time. Hardly slowing to whip around the corner, the tires screeched in protest and for a moment she feared that it might skid out of control, or worse, flip entirely. But the little machine proved to be reliable enough, as if it sensed its rider's determination, and came out of the hairpin turn at better than 40 miles an hour.

After several more close calls, CC finally came within sight of her destination, the gondola station. Slowing down to barely over an idle, she approached the small parking lot situated above the actual building. Below was the lone car that Mao and Lelouch had used to get here. The green-haired woman quickly hopped off the faithful little vehicle and made her way to where she knew the control panel to be that operated the cars.

She arrived just in time to see Kallen fire at, and miss, Lelouch. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw him fall back but was visibly relieved when she saw him still unharmed, and more importantly, alive. CC knew that her interference would jeopardize the safety of her two friends, and so she merely waited by the control panel and hoped, hoped that Mao would reach for the gun he had stashed inside the gondola like he previously did and not do something that was beyond her control. Just as a precaution, she pulled a pistol that she carried with her at Lelouch's insistence, claiming that she would need it if Mao ambushed her.

Her lips curved up into a thin, sad smile as she saw Mao turn and go for the gondola and retrieve his gun.

_Good, all is going as planned. Now there is only one thing left to do…_

With both hands tightly clutched onto the grip, she took aim, prepared to hit the button that would send the car on its merry way back down the hill should she miss. It was when she saw him start to take aim at the fallen man and woman that she fired a round at him, missing by half a foot at the most. Although it was obvious Mao needed to be stopped, her feelings got the best of her once again. It turns out she could not bring herself to kill him this time around, not again. Sighing at her lack of strength even after she was given a second chance, she slammed her hand down on the button, closing the car's door and activating the motors that would make the car go back the way it had come.

* * *

Mao swung around with his rifle to face the unexpected attacker but quickly dropped it when he saw who was wielding the steaming pistol, an absolutely insane smile creeping onto his face. He yanked off his glasses and headphones, the sound of CC's voice giving a young Mao encouragement and false promises of staying with him forever echoing in the gondola. He pressed his face to the glass and eagerly called out for the source of his obsession and madness. She was so close yet so far. Just a little more… that's all he needed… only a hand's width apart.

"Oh CC you came! I knew you would, I knew you couldn't stay away from me!"

His cries went unheard and instead of receiving the love and attention he craved, met with the pistol, the barrel still smoking, aimed right at his heart. Mao, completely oblivious to her threat, went on trying to call out to her, even after she had walked out of view.

* * *

CC waited a few moments to watch Mao to make sure he did not go for his gun again before turning and walking down to where Lelouch was comforting a miserable Kallen. A mix of emotions came to CC as she observed the scene playing out before her eyes. First and foremost, CC felt happy that neither of them was physically hurt, whether there was any psychological damage remained to be seen, but in all honesty it was unlikely. She also felt a pang of guilt in knowing that she had in fact allowed Mao to escape, knowing what it was only a matter of days before he tried again. Looking at Kallen, she swore that she would not let her emotions get the better of her again and, if necessary, personally end Mao's pathetic life once and for all.

Lelouch looked up at her with an expression that was both relieved and grateful. He motioned for CC to take a seat on the other side of the distraught redhead, which she promptly did and placed a hand on Kallen's shoulder. After sitting like that for a few moments in silence, the sobs died down and Kallen looked over first at CC then finally Lelouch.

"I'm sorry." She said quietly. "I don't know what came over me. He seemed to know exactly what was going through my mind. He knew everything, all my fears, my insecurities, everything. I didn't know what to do."

"Don't worry, I understand" Lelouch assured her. "That man is very good at getting inside people's heads and using their emotions to manipulate them. You couldn't do anything to stop it. I'm sorry you had to go through such a traumatizing experience."

"Who was he? He seemed to know so much about you and CC."

Lelouch and CC shared a quick glance and silently decided to once again put their trust in their ace pilot and friend and tell her the truth… mostly. "His name is Mao, and he is a very dangerous man, as you unfortunately witnessed. He came after you to lure me and CC into the open."

"No, that isn't quite right, I am the sole reason for him doing this. Lelouch is simply involved because he was kind enough to give me shelter and became my friend." CC corrected, her voice devoid of any emotion. "Years ago he was just an orphan, hated by everybody. One day I came across him and took him into my care and watched over him for a number of years. For reasons I can't reveal, I was forced to leave him. During those years he had grown to consider me his entire world and became obsessed with having me to himself, which is why he has come back now. I am sorry for the pain that he has caused you, Kallen. It was not our desire to allow this to happen."

The redhead shook her head, looking straight at the immortal. "No, don't be. You said it yourself: this Mao guy is the one who did it. I can't exactly blame you for him going insane and stalking you." Her gaze shifted down now, as if she had gained a sudden interest in her feet. "Besides, if there is anyone who should apologize for this it should be me, I let him get the best of me and I nearly betrayed both you guys' trust." She said barely above a whisper.

"You're wrong you know, both of you." Lelouch said simply, standing up from his spot and looking off into the distance. "The only person to blame is Mao. Not you CC, for leaving him, nor you Kallen, for questioning me. As far as I am concerned none of this need be discussed again, agreed?"

CC stood up now as well, a smirk growing on her face. "I think you may be right Lelouch, for once." She added teasingly. This brought a light chuckle from Lelouch and even Kallen giggled a little, not necessarily from it being funny, but just to release some of the tension of the situation. "We should be heading back now. I really don't feel like hiking all the way back to the Tokyo settlement."

"I doubt you would even if you had to." Lelouch smirked, offering his hand to Kallen, who gratefully accepted. "By the way, how do you plan on getting back down? Mao just left in the gondola and I doubt he would be so dumb as to let us use it."

The trio started to climb up the stairs that CC had used earlier and made their way back towards the small lot where the scooter awaited. CC turned her head and gave Lelouch a very devious grin.

"Well, I am not sure about yourself, but Kallen and I will be using the scooter that I 'borrowed' to get up here."

Lelouch gaped at her, clearly thinking, hoping really, that his partner was joking. "You can't be serious. There is no way I would be able to survive that; it is nearly a mile back to the hotel!" He protested vehemently.

Kallen decided to leap into the conversation with her own rather devious grin, which still paled in comparison to CC's. "You do have a point; with your stamina I doubt you would even make it halfway down the hill before collapsing from exhaustion."

The raven-haired teen was aghast at the treatment he was receiving from his supposed friends and comrades-in-arms. He decided to try the only approach left, determined not to walk such a distance, even if his pride was hurt in the process. "Exactly, you wouldn't want the guilt of knowing that you did that to me, right? And what about you Kallen, surely it wouldn't be so much of a problem for you to hike back?"

CC and Kallen exchanged a glance, as if they were actually considering his 'argument'. Just as he was getting his hopes up, the girls answered simultaneously. "No."

"I thought you were a gentleman Lelouch. And a true gentleman would _never_ let a woman walk a mile in his place." Lelouch cursed CC for bringing up the same argument that had cost him the comfort of his bed all those weeks ago.

They had finally arrived at the stashed vehicle, with Lelouch resigned to walk the distance, not run but actually walk; running would be undignified after all. Both the girls hopped on the scooter, with CC eagerly grasping onto the handles. With one last glance back at a frowning Lelouch, CC turned the key to start little engine, which purred to life.

And then it immediately shut off again, refusing to restart no matter how many times CC tried, even resisting Kallen's attempts to kick it. If Lelouch didn't know any better, it would seem like the little machine seemed even more determined to not turn on after being hit. He smirked and walked over to the irritated girls.

"Looks like you two will be joining me."

Both glared at him for a moment, Kallen's look actually succeeding in making the teen take an involuntary step back.

"Shut up Lelouch." Kallen grumbled.

With that said, Lelouch simply turned around and started walking off in the direction of the road that led down the hill and back into the city below. Abandoning their attempts to revive the thing, Kallen and CC fell into line behind Lelouch and began their silent hike back to the hotel.

Back up in the lot, as the group receded into the distance, the scooter fell over, the sound of glass cracking accompanying it. If anyone had bothered to take a closer look at what had broke, they would have seen the gas gauge was now lacking its protective cover, the needle holding at empty.

* * *

**Author note:** So that was the first encounter with Mao, I hope it was decent. I really had a difficult time coming up with ways for Mao to manipulate Kallen so I decided to just go with her doubts about the whole rebellion and Lelouch. Granted it is not very original, but it was the best I could do. And as for why I had CC hold back her shot at the last second, well she still does feel something for Mao since he is the closest thing she had to a child and she obviously felt guilt for the way he is (as shown in the anime, especially when the police shoot him in Clovisland). So I hope my logic (or bs if you want to call it that) works.

One last thing before I go, my classes for college have started back up again so I will be going back to my tentative schedule of 1 chapter per week, or thereabouts.

As always I appreciate reviews, especially those that contain some constructive criticism, although praise and entertaining ones definitely help motivate me.


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The clock was just striking seven and the sky had already lost most of its light when the trio finally arrived at the hot spring hotel's entrance, each of them showing varying degrees of fatigue. Kallen showed none, despite the arduous task of hiking down the hill and walking the mile it took to get back. CC also showed very few signs of their long walk back, although she was noticeably breathing slightly harder than normal. And of course, lagging slightly behind the two girls, gasping for breath and drenched in sweat, was Lelouch. During their trek through the remnants of Narita's downtown, CC constantly commented on his poor excuse for physical prowess and towards the end even Kallen would make a little quip or two at his expense, though she stayed quiet most of the time; needless to say, Lelouch found that experience to be torture.

Once they entered the lobby a blonde blur crashed into Kallen. Said girl was barely able to hold her balance as her energetic friend continued to cling to her like a dog to his bone. Behind Milly, the rest of the student council watched the strange spectacle with generally disinterested expressions on their faces, being long accustomed to the president's behavior.

"Where have you been? I was looking for you everywhere!" Milly asked once she had finally released the fiery haired girl. "And what did you two do to Lelouch? He looks like he is about to pass out!"

"Oh, sorry." Kallen replied meekly, putting on her sickly facade again. "I—"

"She decided to do some sightseeing right, Kallen?" Lelouch interrupted between heavy breaths.

"Yeah, right." the redhead gave an involuntary shiver that went largely unnoticed, except by a pair of golden and violet eyes. "If it wasn't for him and CC I'm not sure what I would have done."

CC took this moment to make one last quip at her partner's expense, her lips curled into a smirk. "And the reason for why Lelouch is about to faint is because he lacks any stamina. We should have known better." This got a rise out the Lelouch, who had finally started to recover from his ordeal.

"You just love bringing that up don't you? I keep telling you that I am perfectly fit and capable. I have no need for being a fitness nut like Suzaku." Came the inevitable retort.

The group burst out into varying degrees of laughter at the indignant raven-haired teen. Nina, Shirley, and, much to Lelouch's shock and dismay, Nunally were giggling off to the side. Suzaku gave off a throaty chuckle from one of the lobby's couches that he had sat down on. Then there was Rivalz and Milly, both laughing so hard that they were leaning against each other to prevent the other and themselves from falling over on accident. The unfortunate target of this laughter could do nothing but wait until they had their fun at his expense, sending a glare at a still smirking CC once in a while. Once the laughter died down Lelouch decided to take charge of the situation.

"Excuse me, madam president, but did you not wish to be leaving about now?" he asked, motioning towards the pile of luggage in the corner by Suzaku.

Milly cleared her throat to rid herself of the last of her laughter before responding with a grin. "You're right, as to be expected of my vice-president. Alright everyone let's go home. Suzaku, you don't mind helping Lelouch with the bags do you?"

"Sure, I don't mind." Came the Japanese teen's inevitable reply.

"But I—"

"Thanks you two, I knew I could count on you guys." Milly interrupted before any objections could be voiced. With a grin she turned on her heels and headed out the door towards the awaiting bus.

Suzaku immediately got up from his relaxed position on the seat and grabbed two bags under each arm, more than half of the total luggage, and gave Lelouch a questioning look before following the blonde out of the lobby. Lelouch just sighed at his best friend's eagerness to help and grabbed the nearest bag he could find, which, unbeknownst to him, happened to be CC's. Despite its smaller appearance, he soon learned it was quite heavy for a standard duffel bag of this size. Grunting from the effort, he hefted the bag with both hands and slowly followed after the others.

It took both of the boys another trip each to accomplish their task of loading the small bus with all of the bags and suitcases. As was typical of the pair, Suzaku was carrying the majority of the loads while the far less physically gifted, and already drained, Lelouch struggled with single bags. When the matter of his less than impressive display of physicality, he became adamant in saying that he had done well enough considering his earlier walk throughout Narita's downtown. Not too long after he took his seat in the far back, once again seated to CC's left, he shut his eyes to grab some rest; he had a feeling that until Mao was either captured or killed, neither he nor CC would be getting a decent night's sleep.

* * *

The throaty roar of the engine increased as the older model bus began its ascent up the hill they were currently climbing. Due to the landslide that the Black Knights had caused several weeks ago the main road in this area was still undergoing repairs and they were forced to take a detour, which explained the relatively bumpy ride they were experiencing at the moment. The ride was silent as most of the teens were either quietly looking at the scenery or, like Lelouch, sleeping.

CC gazed out the window, deep in thought about what had happened in Narita. Despite knowing that she had done all that she could have done at the time, CC still felt some guilt at putting one of the few people that she actually considered a friend in harm's way. She kept trying to tell herself that Kallen was strong and, more importantly, safe yet there was still a small voice in the back of her mind that had its doubts.

_It's because of you that she had to go through that. You could have gotten Lelouch hurt. He could have been killed. And after all of that, you could have ended it all then and there, with a single shot. If anything of inconvenience were to occur it would be all your fault…_

CC once shook her head to try and clear out the thoughts, but to no avail; they would not go away. If anything they served to intensify the guilt, as the thoughts grew clearer.

_How did you just stand there as the man you claim to care about was put in harm's way? How can you—_

This seemingly endless trail of thoughts was interrupted when CC suddenly felt something on her left shoulder. Turning her head, CC met the startling violet eyes with her own golden orbs, a questioning look in his eyes that concealed a mild concern. For a moment neither said anything, CC not trusting herself to speak normally, Lelouch simply unsure of what to say at the moment. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he reached a hand up to her face and wiped away the single tear that, unbeknownst to CC, had fallen down her cheek.

"Do you want to talk about whatever it is that is bothering you?" Lelouch asked quietly.

CC simply shook her head and looked back out the window in an attempt to avoid the situation. She was hoping that he would leave it at that, but apparently he had other plans as he placed his second hand on her other shoulder. The raven-haired teen then gently but firmly turned his partner around to face him once again.

"CC I may not know exactly what it is that is going on in your head at the moment but remember, we are accomplices. I won't push you to tell me right now but for both our sakes, the problem should be addressed soon before it spirals out of control. For now you should get some rest." He said as he pulled her over to lean on him as a pillow of some sort; the fact that she was not resisting did not escape him.

_She hasn't yet said a word about it..._

As her head made contact with his shoulder, CC suddenly realized just how tired she really was; all the stress of today had finally caught up with her and now her body was physically paying the price. With a small, almost undetectable yawn she closed her eyes and dozed off, soon followed by Lelouch, whose head eventually slumped to the side and came to rest on top of hers.

In the front of the bus Sayoko took a brief glance at the rearview mirror and saw the pair blissfully unaware in their slumber. A small smile came across her face as she chuckled. "Ah, how great it is to be young."

* * *

The sound of hushed voices broke through the heavy veil of sleep that had enveloped CC. she initially tried to ignore them, hoping they would cease, but that proved to be to be impossible. With a discontent groan, she opened her eyes to see the entire student council standing in front of her with bemused expressions on their faces; among the sea of various faces, the frowning face of a certain orange-haired girl stood out the most. It was then that she felt the weight pressing on her head and side. Recalling what had happened just before she dozed off, CC felt her face warm up from the blush that began to creep up her cheeks. To confirm her suspicions, an idea suddenly popped into her head.

Just to make sure, she nudged her elbow into the form next to her and was rewarded by a grunt and the movement of a person stirring. The pair quickly jumped up from their seats and turned towards each other with embarrassed looks in their eyes and flushed faces. A stagnant silence permeated the air for several moments as they stared each other with their friends looking on as bystanders, nobody quite wanting to be the one to break the awkward silence, Milly being the exception; she was just enjoying seeing the normally unflappable Lelouch genuinely embarrassed.

"If you two are done staring at each other, maybe we should be going." Apparently Shirley had no qualms with speaking up.

Lelouch cleared his throat and looked out the window to see the well-manicured grounds of Ashford Academy. "Uh yeah, we should get going. We wouldn't want anyone to be late for class tomorrow"

"Yes, that would be best." CC quickly agreed, surprised at her own embarrassment.

"Ah, that's not fun; things were just getting good." Milly threw her hands up in the air in surrender. "Oh well, this girl is tired after a long and hectic day so I'll be going to bed."

The other nodded in agreement and exited the bus, heading off for their respective dorms. While Lelouch was focused on babying a sleeping Nunally, Shirley sent one last glare at CC before walking away towards the female dorms. She ignored the irritating orange-haired girl and turned her attention to where Lelouch was standing beside Nunally's wheelchair, talking with Sayoko about getting the young princess-in-exile prepared for bed. The green-haired immortal grabbed her bag and began walking up the pathway that led to the clubhouse and a nice, warm bed. As she walked, CC's mind wandered back to the events that had occurred on the bus.

_Why did I have to act like a lovesick teen back there? It was just two people leaning on each other when they were sleeping. And why did he end up with his head on top on mine? Lelouch didn't do that on purpose, did he? No, it couldn't be. This is not any normal person: this is Lelouch we're talking about._

CC shook her head as she began climbing up the stairs that led to the second level of the building. Several minutes later she collapsed onto the bed, clad in her typical nightwear, which consisted of one of Lelouch's dress shirts and her underwear. By the time her partner entered the room she was already sound asleep.

* * *

The phone's ringing echoed throughout the darkened halls of the student council's clubhouse. CC looked up at Lelouch expectantly from her spot several steps down on the main staircase and on the fourth ring it ceased as Lelouch answered.

"Hello, Lelouch." Mao's voice crackled through the small speaker. "I know my dear CC is there so would you put her on?"

"Listen here you lunatic, do not think that I—" Lelouch began in a dark, low voice.

"That's not a nice thing to say Lulu, not nice at all. Right now I don't have the patience to hear your threats so won't you hand over the phone to my beloved CC?"

Lelouch said nothing and walked down the remaining steps between him and his partner. With a nod from her, he passed her the phone and took a step back, not pleased with the situation. As soon as CC brought the phone up to her ear, as if he was watching, Mao began to speak.

"It's me CC," the crazed man said gleefully. "I'm sure you figured it out but I am in the area so don't try telling your friend anything if you don't want me to hurt him."

"I understand. Now what do you want from me?" There was no emotion in her statement, knowing that this man would be dead within the hour.

"Right to the point still, I see. That's what I love about you CC. In fact, I love everything about you!" Mao replied with a sickening laugh. "I want you to meet me at Clovisland by the carousel in half an hour, no delays or telling anybody. It'll be our little secret."

"Fine, I will meet you there soon." CC answered as she closed the phone and turned to Lelouch, who had been watching the brief conversation apprehensively. "It looks like you are going to be rid of me after all, I'm going back to Mao now." She explained with a clearly faked happiness.

"So, you plan to abandon me CC?" Lelouch asked, surprised to say the least. "What about our plans?"

"Abandon you? You had a contract with me, nothing more. I've merely come to the realization that Mao will be able to grant me my wish, that's all. There's nothing else to it and nothing that you could have done to prevent it." She replied as she turned around and started to descend the stairs. "And you can keep your geass, in case you were wondering."

"CC, wait."

Said girl stopped to face the raven-haired teen at the top of the stairs, knowing what would come next and deciding to humor him, to make it seem real to Mao, if nothing else.

"You know far too much about me to be allowed to leave. I, Lelouch vi Britannia, command you to stay here with me." He proclaimed as he activated his geass, the blood red glowing in the otherwise dark room.

Her golden eyes widened and stared blankly at the man. When CC did not make any move to walk out the door, Lelouch smirked and began to slowly walk down the stairs.

"Excellent."

"You can be quite forgetful at times. Did I not tell you that your geass wouldn't work on me?" CC asked, causing the teen to stop in his tracks. His lips parted to utter a word but was cut off by a single phrase.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about your secret."

"What of the Black Knights? Of Infinity?"

"I don't know, nor do I really care. Make something up; you seem to be good at doing that anyway. Goodbye Lelouch."

And with that she turned and walked out the door, the door silently closing behind her. Lelouch just stood there dumbfounded. He couldn't help but wonder what it was that Mao had said to her that made her change their original plan of using her as bait and then ambushing him with the Black Knights. He sighed and headed back upstairs to his room, unsure of what to do in this situation.

Once the door closed behind him, Lelouch sat on the edge of his bed and nestled his head in his hands, trying to find a way to turn the situation around. Without warning he shot up as, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a white envelope on the desk. Realizing that it must have been left by CC, he quickly ran over and tore open the envelope addressed to him, revealing a short letter written in CC's flowing handwriting. His lips slowly curled upward into a smirk as he read the letter outlining CC's plan and her reasons for acting the way she had. He took a quick glance at the clock and hurried out of the room to make the necessary preparations.

* * *

CC looked around at her surroundings cautiously, taking note of each of the darkened rides, searching for any sign of Mao. When she reached the large open area next to the carousel and screen, just like last time, the park came alive with brilliant lights, joyful music, and whirring machinery. Turning about to face the spinning merry-go-round, CC immediately caught sight of Mao's lanky form riding a white horse like a twisted knight, arms thrown up in the air as he grinned incessantly.

Mao, upon seeing CC standing there, leapt off his mock steed and strode over to her. "It's me CC, your knight in shining armor, here to save you from the evil Lelouch." He said, clapping and laughing as he did, clearly amused by his own joke.

"Still as childish as before I see." She retorted bitterly, taking one step back.

"Oh no, you got it all wrong, I'm just excited to see you. I really, really am." He said, taking another step forward.

"Stay back." CC barked in a dangerously low voice as she pulled out the concealed pistol in the jacket she had taken from Lelouch's room.

Mao stared at the muzzle pointed directly at his heart with a puzzled expression on his face, not quite contemplating the meaning of CC's actions. Suddenly he burst out into laughter again.

"You wouldn't shoot me, you love me, right CC?" He asked as he started to walk closer, forcing her to take yet another step back.

"You're wrong, I feel nothing for you besides pity. It is my fault you are the way you are, and now it is time for me to do what I should have done all those years ago. Goodbye Mao." As she finished, CC applied the last bit of pressure needed to fully pull the trigger.

However, instead of the firing pin striking the primer, sending the recoil back and the bullet forward and into his heart, there was just a small click. Despite the sound being barely audible, to CC it sounded as loud as an explosion. The next thing she knew she felt an unbearable pain explode out of her right arm, causing her to involuntarily drop her useless pistol. The sound of the gunshot echoed throughout the empty amusement park, followed in quick succession by 3 additional ones.

CC was now flat on her back, pain radiating from each of her limbs as her blood oozed out of the wounds, slowly forming a pool around her. Mao walked into her field of vision with a confused expression on his face.

"You tried to kill me CC. But why would you do that? You love me. We are meant to be together." He said, sounding more like a kicked puppy than a grown man.

"I told you, I feel nothing for you but pity." CC replied through clenched teeth. "I tried to end your life as I should have done when I left."

"No! That's a lie, a dirty, dirty lie!" he exclaimed, firing additional bullets into her already healing wounds, causing her to cry out in pain once again. "You shouldn't tell lies, you know."

The deranged geass user once again walked out of her vision to retrieve something.

_No, not something, he's going to get the chainsaw. _She reflected, fear starting to creep its way into her mind._ Where is Lelouch? He must be aware of everything by now, isn't he?_

And then came the dreaded sound of the chainsaw roaring to life. It was happening. Her nightmare was becoming reality; she was brought back to her dream of Lelouch dead, being dragged behind Mao with the hideous wound across his stomach. Her flashback was abruptly ended when Mao began to address her.

"I know you weren't telling the truth earlier CC, but I forgive you. I have this house in Australia; it's big, white, and away from people. But I have a problem, it's a long trip and you're too big. Don't worry though; I came up with a solution… I'll make you travel size."

Mao began laughing hysterically as he approached her, revving the motor every so often. When he was once again towering above her with, by far, his most demented grin, he raised the rotating blade in anticipation of bringing it down on her limbs. When he started on his downward motion CC shut her eyes as if to somehow shield herself from the pain that she now was certain to come. And then, without any prior indication, the large screen came to life to reveal an imposing close-up of Lelouch.

"Mao," the image uttered, the shot expanding to show a building resembling the Eifel Tower in the background. "As you can see, I am at the base of Tokyo Tower, well beyond the range of your geass."

The crazed man let the chainsaw die and turned to face the screen. "Yes, that is very true." He laughed. "But just what do you think you can do all the way over there? Send an army of hacked robots at me?"

"Mao, you don't think that CC is her real name do you?" Lelouch continued, disregarding the man entirely. "She told me her real name Mao. I know everything about her."

"Lies! There is no way my dear CC would tell you—"

"I own her, in every possible way." Lelouch interrupted with a smirk. "I have conquered every part of her, including those that you have not seen. Face it Mao, I have won."

Mao exploded from the constant prodding and the thought of _his _CC belonging to anyone else but him. The man lunged at the screen and began slashing at it with the chainsaw, sparks and shards of glass flying in every direction from the assault. And yet, much to Mao's anger, the taunts would not stop. Lelouch's voice echoed in his mind and refused to leave him be. The voice finally ceased, only to be replaced by more in the distance.

Mao whirled around and came to face a large assembly of police and riot officers flanked by a pair of the Knight Police. Shock and utter disbelief overtook the madman as he noticed one officer walk over and pick up CC. Then, as if to compound his defeat, the officer raised the brim of hit cap to reveal a smirking Lelouch.

"You! But how, I thought you were at Tokyo Tower!"

_Don't you see? It was all a recording that I used to distract you while I moved in. Your thoughts are so simple that it was easy to predict your responses. You realize, you were never competition for me, not even a slight challenge. Here you will meet your end. Goodbye, Mao._ Lelouch thought at him, the smirk unwavering. He then turned his back and began walking towards the awaiting police VTOL.

"Don't you walk away from me! You forget what I know about you!" Mao cried out triumphantly. "Officers, hear what I have to say! That man right there is—"

Before he could play his final card, a decorated man with red rims ringing his pupils raised his arm in the air and, barked an order to open fire upon the chainsaw wielding maniac. Every officer and knightmare steadied his weapon and pulled the trigger, the hail of bullets ripping into Mao and the ruined screen behind him; the rhythmic ping of the spent bullet casings and the booming shots gradually quieted down as a mangled body fell lifelessly to the ground.

* * *

The whine of the VTOL began to recede into the distance before Lelouch gently released his hold of CC and allowed her to stand on her own feet, her wounds long since healed. The teen watched as she walked over to the railing and glanced over the edge to the city below. A gentle breeze blew fallen leaves by her feet and tousled her long locks. Stray strands were removed from her face and revealed her golden eyes and pale face. The sight was mesmerizing yet at the same time…saddening.

_Why?_

"I told you the terms of our contract, did I not?" she asked with little emotion.

The question caught Lelouch off guard but he answered regardless. "Yes, in exchange for granting me my geass I am to grant you your wish."

"That's right. But I haven't told you what that wish is." She turned around, looking downward with a melancholy expression on her face. "I think it's time you knew."

She sighed before she turned her gaze upwards and locked her golden irises with his violet ones. "All I've ever wanted was to love and be loved. Silly wish, isn't it? Coming from an immortal witch who has no right to." She then tore her eyes away and looked down at her feet. Her vision was quickly becoming blurry and her cheeks felt warm as something wet trickled down the sides of her face.

_Stop. Stop it. Why are you crying? You shouldn't be crying. What reason is there to? _But she already knew the answer. She was afraid, afraid of his reaction, afraid of being vulnerable for the first time in her long life.

If the words hit Lelouch like a truck, then seeing the glistening tears rolling down her face struck him like a Knightmare Frame. "You're wrong." He said at length as he strode over to her.

CC's head snapped up and settled onto his serious features. "But after all I've—"

"That's enough. I don't care what you have done in the past. Everyone deserves to be happy, to receive love and give it: especially you." He stated. The distance between them continued to reduce until then there was nothing between them as he pulled her into a kind embrace. "I promise you CC that you will find that happiness one day, and I will make it my personal mission to make sure that you do."

They both just stood in the embrace for a moment in absolute silence, CC with her face buried in Lelouch's chest, Lelouch with his arms snaked around her petite form. CC gently pushed herself away and looked up to meet his questioning eyes. Lelouch's eyes widened in shock as CC suddenly leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Quite suddenly he felt as if his face was on fire from the brief contact.

"Wha—" he muttered, still stunned from what had just occurred.

"Thank you, Lelouch." She said with a small, genuine smile. "Nobody has treated me like I was human before until I met you and Nunally. Speaking of her, we should be getting back before morning."

The two separated rather reluctantly and walked side by side to the building's external fire escape, both recalling what had happened and all that was to come. One thing they both knew was this: regardless of what happened next, they would be there to watch each other's backs and see their goals through.

* * *

**Author note:** Argh, I'm sooooo sorry that I have been so late with this update! The start of this term has been way busier than in the past and I have been going crazy with projects and reading. And then, in all my infinite brilliance *cough* liar *cough*, I have picked up a second story that I am now working on with a group in the Sword Art Online fandom (please forgive me!). I know that nobody is going to like this but I am going to be slowing down to an update every other week this term, with a good chance of no updates towards the end. I'm going to try to avoid that but my education is my biggest priority.

Anyway, I hope that you guys liked this chapter, which is waaaaay longer than I had thought it would be so consider it my way of saying sorry. And so that brings an end to the Mao arc of my story. I hope that the little moment between our couple-in-denial was enjoyable; quite a bit of the wording and actions were the ideas of my super amazing editor.

I will update as soon as I can so please be patient.


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

A pair of violet eyes stared off into the darkness, their owner deep in thought. Lelouch rolled over onto his side to gaze at C.C. sleeping peacefully on the bed of their shared dorm room. Try as he might, the raven-haired teen could not get his mind off the events on the roof earlier tonight, where CC had revealed her wish, showed her vulnerabilities, and even kissed him. He could feel his face heat up as he recalled the sensation of her lips brushing up against his cheek. Before he knew it his thoughts had drifted towards wondering what it would feel like to have her lips pressed against his.

Lelouch nearly choked at that thought. _When did I start thinking of her like that?_He wondered, stunned at this profound change of thinking. _It's not like I see her in that way— she is just a friend, a partner. But what about her? What does she think of me? Was of all that a result of her loneliness or maybe she—_

As Lelouch was trying to reason everything that had happened between him and his green haired accomplice, CC was once again in the middle of what could only be described as a nightmare.

* * *

**CC's dream**

_Two figures stood on the darkened rooftop, one facing away from the other, leaning against the railing that overlooked the city below. The figure by the railing suddenly turned around and took several tentative steps forward, her long green hair flowing behind her. The raven-haired man in front of her looked at her questioningly but didn't utter a sound._

"_I haven't told you what that wish is." CC said, looking downward with a saddened expression on her face. "I think it's time you knew."_

_She sighed before she turned her gaze upwards and locked her golden irises with his violet ones. "All I've ever wanted was to love and be loved. Silly wish, isn't it? Coming from an immortal witch who has no right to."_

_The man in front of her burst into laughter and CC visibly flinched as if she had been physically struck. The hurt she felt was unimaginable and, with each passing second his laughter shook the chilly air, it only continued to grow._

"_You're right you know." He began with a cruel smirk. "How could something that isn't even human expect to love? How could anyone love a witch like you? You disgust me—you're pathetic."_

_The poor girl collapsed to her knees and burst into cries of anguish. The harshness of his words had all but crushed her and left her entirely bare and vulnerable. With tears pouring down her face, she glared up at the raven-haired man towering above her. A look of pure contempt crossed her face and lit up her eyes. Suddenly, his face began to morph into that of Mao, the cruel grin slowly replaced with a twisted smile. _

"_Don't worry CC, I'm still here." He said darkly, his demeanor completely and uncharacteristically serious. "And I'll make sure that you stay with me, forever."_

_He began laughing maniacally as he hefted a chainsaw and started the motor. He lifted it higher over his head in preparation. CC just looked up at him pitiably, no longer caring about what would happen to her. Her world had crashed down on her and there was no other reason for her to go on. Her shoulders drooped and her head hung low as she let out a defeated sigh. With the weapon roaring within an arm's distance, all that was left was to wait for the searing heat to pierce her body. She waited ever so patiently for it—for everything to end. She glanced up to see the rotating blades fall in a smooth, downward arc. Just as they were about to make contact, everything went black._

* * *

Lelouch stopped his train of thought when he saw CC shift beneath the covers. As she was jarred from the dream, the green haired girl shot upright and desperately scanned the room. Her gaze eventually came across Lelouch and locked onto his widened eyes. Her golden orbs, displaying sadness and relief, were underlined with a distinct sense of fear: it was evident in the way that they shook. They held each other's gaze for a moment longer before Lelouch decided to get up from his makeshift bed and make his way towards her. Slowly sitting on the edge of the bed, Lelouch waited a moment before speaking.

"So you couldn't sleep either?" he asked concernedly as he tilted forward.

_How pathetic, this time around I'm the one who's acting like a frightened child. I need to get a hold of myself. _CC thought before answering.

"No, not at all. Too much has happened lately for me to get much sleep."

"Yeah, I know what you mean, between dealing with Mao and running the Black Knights, we have been through a lot." Lelouch replied. "But I'm not sure that's all that is bothering you. You seemed disturbed when you woke up just now. I'm aware that is it not my place but, as your partner, I am concerned about your well-being. Would you like to talk about it?"

She flashed a sad smile before she shook her head. "About _my_ well-being? Funny, it really should be the opposite. No, don't worry about it, I'm fine. It was merely a dream, nothing to worry about. I will see you tomorrow Lelouch, good night." She said as she lay back down and once again settled under the covers.

_Partner,_ CC thought as her head hit the pillow. _Is that really all he sees me as at the moment? _

Although he didn't quite believe her when she said that nothing was wrong, Lelouch saw that it would be pointless to try and push for information; if CC didn't want to talk about it, there was no way he would be able to sway the willful woman; she would talk when she was ready. With a yawn he made his way back to his makeshift bed on the couch and lay back down. Glancing over at his partner, Lelouch could not help but think of what had transpired since he first saw his enigmatic, immortal friend. He became so lost in his thoughts that he could not fall asleep for several hours.

* * *

"All units, the target has been sighted, along with four others, presumably the Four Holy Swords. All teams get in position; he is to be taken alive by any means necessary. Capture the others if possible but under no circumstances can Kyoshiro Todoh be allowed to escape."

A man clad from head to toe in black took one last draw on the cigarette that he had been smoking and flicked it over the edge of the building he was lying prone on. Tapping his tactical radio's microphone twice to signal his ready status, he pulled the bolt-action rifle to his right shoulder and peered down the night vision scope, the surroundings going from nearly pitch black to an eerie green.

It took the soldier a minute to scan the park below before he spotted five figures walking down a path, one in the lead while the others trailed closely behind, occasionally searching the area for potential threats. His targets now located, the man tracked the group, keeping his crosshairs hovering directly over the lead male. For the next few minutes they continued walking in silence, much to the boredom of the sniper, but orders were orders and his were to simply observe the situation and provide cover only if absolutely needed.

Finally Todoh and his followers came to a halt near a large tree in the center of the park, just off the path and away from casual passersby. The soldier radioed this information to his superior to pass on to the team that would be arresting the Eleven terrorists. A few moments later, sirens began blaring and a team of 10 heavily armed commandos flooded the park, converging on the group from all directions.

The five figures quickly reached into their coats and pulled out small pistols, two of them crouching and training their weapons in opposite directions while the other three swept the small pistols across the area. One figure, presumably Todoh, motioned towards a cluster of trees with his left hand, indicating for his subordinates to make their escape. They hesitated for a moment before reluctantly getting up and taking off for the cover. When they were half way to the trees the fifth man, almost assuredly Todoh, dropped his pistol and walked in the direction of the approaching commando team, hands raised above his head.

"Hawkeye Three to command." The sniper called over his tactical radio. "Additional targets have broken away from the objective and are attempting to escape through the tree line. Requesting permission to take them out."

A static silence followed as the man on the other end weighed his options. "Negative Hawkeye Three, you are to not engage. I will send additional units in pursuit once primary target is secured. I repeat, do not engage."

The soldier sighed in disappointment. "Understood, I will continue to monitor the situation. Hawkeye Three, out." He said as he switched off his transmitter. "Damn, just when I thought things would get interesting. Oh well, if the captain wants another medal, I guess there's nothing I can do."

It took another minute for the soldiers down below to finally apprehend the terrorist commander. By the time they were walking him out of the park and towards the awaiting armored transport in restraints, the sniper had lost track of the four people, their escape having obviously been planned out. When he relayed this to his superior, he was told that his role was done and that every available soldier and officer in the area would be searching for them. Stretching his sore back, the sniper gingerly placed his rifle back in its case and made his way to the designated rendezvous location.

Later at the base, when he asked about the status of the manhunt for the missing Four Holy Swords, he was told that they had eluded pursuit and were no where to be found.

* * *

"Hey!" Rivalz cried out. "What was that for?"

"You shouldn't have sleeping during a meeting." Milly scolded as she lifted the ruler threateningly, prepared to smack the blue-haired teen again. "There is a lot of paperwork that we need to get done for the cultural festival coming up in a few weeks."

"Ah, come on. We can always put it off for later."

Lelouch looked up from the pile of forms in front of him, his mouth working into a smirk. "Good point, you know we can still do that."

Milly threw her hands up in frustration. "Guys! We need to get this work done now so we can work on the setup later, we don't have time to screw around."

Lelouch merely shrugged and went back to his paperwork with the same usual, bored expression. Their other friend however did not seem to get the message as he tried to sneak out of the room. Unfortunately for him, he did not make it far before the bubbly blonde noticed his escape attempt and pounced on him. Rivalz struggled to get out from under her but was unable to break free from the grinning girl as she sat atop his back. A mischievous grin played across her lips as she looked over to Shirley and Suzaku and nodded.

Rivalz's eyes widened as he saw Shirley grab a roll of tape and Suzaku grab the chair that their blue-haired friend had foolishly vacated moments ago. Lelouch and CC looked on amusedly, nearly identical smirks plastered on the faces as he was then forcefully secured to the chair by the three student council members. After a minute or so they took a step back to admire their handiwork. Bound to the chair, and more resembling a prisoner rather than a student, was Rivalz. Much of his torso, as well as his legs, were covered in tape, restricting any movement and crushing any hopes of escaping the mountain of work that the president had set out for them.

Rivalz looked pleadingly at Lelouch and CC to help him. "Come on guys, you know it was a joke. If you help me get out of this mess I'll give you whatever you want."

The raven-haired teen didn't even bother looking up from his work. "If I did that, then _I_ would be the one in your position. Besides, there is nothing you have that I would want."

"B-but you can't just leave me like this!" he exclaimed indignantly. "Cera, I'll buy you as much pizza as you want if you help me out here."

She seemed to consider this offer for a moment before shaking her head. "Lelouch already does that so I see no reason to help. It is your own fault for getting caught trying to sneak out."

Milly gave her trademark Cheshire grin as she walked up to the unfortunate teen. "She is right, you know. I guess you have no choice but to work now, don't you? Maybe, if you get all of your work done, I will untie you. Until then, you have some paperwork that won't be filling itself out."

Rivalz groaned at his circumstances and resigned himself to the fate that had been chosen for him. However, that did not stop him from occasionally trying to barter his freedom, even though all his attempts to do so were ignored.

* * *

Kaname Ohgi looked up from his lunch of octopus shaped hot dogs when he heard footsteps approaching him from behind. Quickly closing his bento, he turned around to face the four members of the JLF's Four Holy Swords. Surprised to see the battle-hardened veterans of the once proud JLF standing in front of him, Ohgi quickly rose from his seated position and made to shake the nearest one's hand.

"I-its an honor to meet you, I'm—"

"Kaname Ohgi, third in command of the Black Knights I presume?" The heavyset man interrupted, waiting for Ohgi to nod before continuing. "We can hold the formalities until later. We have a favor to request of you."

The former rebel leader raised his eyebrow upon hearing this. What could these accomplished fighters possibly need from them? Surely the group that could fight on par with the elite units of Cornelia's forces would have no trouble dealing with whatever it was they had come here to ask for aid in doing.

The only woman in the group stepped forward. "Our commander, Lt. Col. Kyoshiro Todoh has been captured by the Britannians. We were going to a meeting when the ambushed us and we only managed to escape because he sacrificed himself."

Now that he thought about it, Ohgi did find it strange that the Four Holy Swords' leader was nowhere to be seen. "And you need our help to rescue him before he is executed."

"That is correct." The first man replied. "So please, will you help us rescue the commander?"

He bowed his head forward, the three men and woman behind him following his example. These acts made Ohgi feel nervous, causing him to let out an involuntarily sigh. After taking a moment to take in the situation he nodded.

"I'll contact Zero and see what he thinks, but I am pretty sure he'll agree to help."

The four soldiers in front of him straightened up and watched on silently as he pulled out a phone and quickly dialed the masked man's number. After several rings a low voice sounded.

"Yes, what is it Ohgi?" came Zero's voice over the phone.

"Zero, we have some visitors that you may be interested to hear about. It's the Four Holy Swords, and they say they need our help with rescuing their leader, Todoh the Miracle Maker."

There was a slight pause as the man on the other end of the line weighed his options. "Tell them that we will help. Use assembly plan B-13. Zero out."

Ohgi put the phone away as the connection was cut and turned to face the four people who were looking at him expectantly. "He said that we will help you rescue the Lt. Col."

All four of the Swords let out a collective sigh of relief upon hearing that they now had a real chance of saving their leader. Ohgi let them release some more of the tension that they had held before the news before loudly clearing his throat and motioning for them to follow him into the Black Knights' mobile trailer; they had a lot to plan and he wanted to have something to report to Zero when he showed up.

* * *

Under a bridge, on a small single lane access road, figures dressed in black ran back and forth in a flurry of activity, loading weapons and double-checking knightmare frames. The former JLF soldiers stood off at a distance, observing the way the Black Knights moved around with a true sense of purpose, the efficiency a testament to the group's leadership.

"Are you sure that it's a good idea to throw in with the Black Knights so quickly?" Asked one of the men, Shogo Asahina.

"Can you see any other way to rescue Col. Todoh?" the woman of the group, Nagisa Chiba, replied.

"And of course there is Kyoto promising us the use of the new models if we did." Kosetsu Urabe added.

"Yeah that is true, but still, their principles seem to be a little off." Asahina persisted.

Chiba simply shook her head. "We aren't ethnocentric but you already know that."

"We can worry about all of the details later, _after_ we rescue Todoh." Senba butted in, intent on focusing at the task at hand.

Asahina grinned. "I understand, but where ever the Col. is, that's where I belong." He said, the others nodding in agreement.

A silence fell over the Holy Swords as they continued to watch the rescue operation's preparations below. One source of particular interest was the one of the loudmouthed members yelling at some recruits who were trying to load the Guren into its trailer while a blonde haired woman berated him for his rough treatment with her 'baby'. Before Tamaki could make any comment about her strange attachment to her creation, a familiar voice caught their attention.

"You arrived on time, Rakshata." Zero said as he approached, the ever-present Infinity walking several steps behind him.

"And you two must be Zero and Infinity. I must say, it is nice to finally meet the both of you." The Indian woman replied. "I've heard a lot about the mysterious leaders of the Black Knights."

"I assure you, the pleasure is ours." Lelouch replied, offering his hand to the scientist. "I have been reading about you on the net for some time now."

"Yes, it is nice to finally meet the creator of the Guren. It is a knightmare like none other." CC added, remembering just how dangerous of an opponent it could be from her very brief battle during the battle for Damocles.

"Well aren't you two smooth talkers." Rakshata said as she pressed her pipe into a button on her suitcase, releasing the latch and revealing several pilot suits. "Here, a present from Kyoto."

The blonde's lazy gaze shifted to focus on something between the masked pair. Before either of them had enough time to turn around to see what had grabbed her attention, Kallen brushed past Lelouch and stood in front of, and slightly to the side of the knightmare developer, hands on her hips. It was then that the raven-haired teen had a chance to see that she was now dressed in one of the new piloting suits that Rakshata had brought, the red of the fabric nearly matching her flaming hair.

"Excuse me, but is this really supposed to improve the interfacing system?" she asked, looking down at her new pilot's wear.

Rakshata chuckled. "No, of course not." She replied, eliciting a confused reaction from Kallen. "It is supposed to increase your life expectancy."

* * *

Lloyd looked up from the second change of executioner forms placed in front of him with a bemused expression on his face. "You need my signature again?" he asked tiredly.

The bureaucrat standing in front of him nodded his head. "Princess Cornelia may have been the one who ordered this, but we still need to follow protocols." He answered evenly. "A change of executioners at the last minute is the most extraordinary of circumstances, I'm sure you understand."

Lloyd just sighed and picked up the pen to fill out the additional paperwork. Next to him, Cecile looked at a shaken Suzaku Kururugi with concern. She could easily understand why he was distraught right now; he was supposed to end the life of the man who had been his instructor as a child. The teen just sat there with a glazed over expression as he recalled on of the times that he had been sparring with Todoh in the Kururugi Shrine's dojo. Even though he was still a child at the time, his teacher had not gone easy on him and, as a result, Suzaku was on the ground in a matter of seconds. He was stirred from his flashback by a large explosion somewhere within the prison compound.

The Britannian bureaucrat looked particularly startled, having never seen real fighting before. "What the hell was that?!" he said, panic seeping into his normally condescending voice.

Everyone rushed to the windows that overlooked the complex's main courtyard to see what all the commotion was. Black smoke poured from a breach in the wall across from building that they were watching from. A squad of Sutherlands quickly moved to firing positions just outside of the smoke. Suddenly a hail of bullets poured out from the darkness, quickly cutting down three quarters of the squad. Before the remaining units could engage the unseen enemy, a pair of Gekkas armed with swords swiftly cut them down. Following quickly behind were two more identical units and the two custom Burai belonging to Zero and Infinity.

As the sword wielding units danced around additional incoming Britannian frames, alternating between gunning them down and slicing them in half, the black and white machines quickly made their way for the maximum-security prisoners block.

"Well, at least I don't have to do the paper work anymore." Lloyd said gleefully. "I guess that means it time for you to get to work Warrant Officer Kururugi."

When he received no reply from the Japanese youth, the questionably sane earl turned around only to find the room's door open and Suzaku nowhere to be found.

"I should have known better." He laughed. "I guess it was good hindsight that we came here with the trailer, isn't it Cecile?"

She gave him a weird look. "Not when you spent all of our budget on developing the Lancelot and support trailer."

* * *

Todoh was sitting in a meditative position in the center of his cell, his eyes closed, when he heard a muffled explosion and gunfire erupt from somewhere inside the compound. A few minutes later he heard the hurried footsteps of one of the guards echoing in the narrow confines of the cellblock. The footsteps slowed down after a few moments before ending right in front of his cell. Todoh opened his eyes and stared at the soldier before him as the man raised his sidearm and pointed it at him behind the shatter-resistant barrier.

The guard pressed a code into the keypad and the partition began to slowly rise from the floor. "My superiors have told me to move up your execution before you're rescued." He said a little too happily. "Any last words, terrorist scum?"

"It does not matter, it is a life I gave up once before. It's worth nothing to me now."

The man scoffed at Todoh's choice of last words, considering them meaningless and empty bravado. As the sliding section of wall rose above the sights of his pistol, the man took deliberate aim at the rebel's heart. Before he could apply the pressure needed to fire his weapon, the wall behind him began rumbling, bits and pieced of mortar falling from the ceiling as the lights went out. Suddenly the wall collapsed inward, throwing bits of concrete and dust flying and forcing Todoh to shield his face from the onslaught. When the dust had settled enough, Todoh looked up and saw the cloaked figure of Zero atop his knightmare, flanked by its white counterpart and the Guren.

"In that case I shall take your life for myself." Lelouch declared as he theatrically extended an arm towards the older man. "Kyoshiro Todoh, the only Japanese soldier to bring the Britannian forces to their knees, I have a need for your unique skills."

"You mean the 'Miracle of Itsukushima'. You want me to perform a miracle for you too." He stated.

"Wrong," Infinity's voice boomed from the cockpit of her Burai. "It was no miracle. The battle was won through excellent intelligence work and planning."

"And that is why we want you to join us, to aid in the liberation of japan." Lelouch said, believing that he had him.

Todoh seemed to consider this for a second. "I have pledged my loyalty to General Katase. Now that he and the JLF are dead, I wish to die too."

"Do not be a coward!" Zero shouted, causing Todoh to glare at him in rage. "You must take responsibility for the miracle that you made! The Area 11 resistance movement is greater than that of any other conquered area because Japan surrendered before exhausting all of its military strength. You have failed to carry on the Miracle of Itsukushima."

"Are you saying that it is my fault?"

Infinity's voice came over the speakers. "Yes, people grasp at illusions because they are desperate for miracles. Why else has there been such rampant use of refrain?"

"You must endeavor to the bitter end, beyond all that is decent, then, and only then, can you die. Until the name of Todoh the Miracle Worker has grown ragged and tattered."

"Are you saying that the Japanese people cannot accept their defeat until then?" Todoh questioned, his anger forgotten. "That you can lead them to victory?"

"That is correct. Until now they had to accept it. However, now that I am here there is hope since I can likely turn their dreams into a reality."

At hearing this, a thin smile crossed Todoh's face. "Very well Zero, I accept your offer."

Slowly, and with a renewed sense of purpose, Todoh rose from his sitting position and deliberately walked to the lowered hand of Zero's black Burai. Lelouch carefully raised the lowered arm and stood his knightmare up, the others following suit. Todoh rushed up the arm and hopped into the cramped cockpit with Zero, the hatch closing behind him. Lelouch signaled that they were ready and the trio of knightmares sped off in the direction of the damaged wall. They encountered several Sutherlands along the way but Kallen's radiant wave surger and CC's Gatling dealt with those with minimal effort.

Right as they neared the gap, a large trailer sped in, covered by the Gekkas as they formed up in a circular formation. Lelouch turned his frame around and backed up to the now open hatch of the trailer, revealing a black Gekka with red hair-like extensions and armed with a large weapon resembling a katana. As soon as the hatch of the Burai had opened fully, the veteran Col. leapt from his crouched position and landed on the shoulder of his new model knightmare. As the canopy closed over him, the voices of his comrades flooded through the communications, welcoming him back and expressing their relief of his safety.

After exchanging his own gratitude, Todoh fully activated his unit. "Co-operate with Zero and eliminate the enemy forces here." He ordered, receiving a hail of affirmatives in return.

Suddenly a red slash harken was launched, aimed right at Lelouch's still open cockpit. Kallen was the first to leap into action, vaulting her Guren into the air and deflecting the projectile with its small blade. The attack neutralized the slash harken and it quickly shot back to its owner, the Lancelot, which was charging at top speed.

"What is he doing here?" Kallen grunted as her frame landed on the ground with a muffled thud.

Lelouch simply smirked at the surprise appearance of the unit that had caused him so much grief. "How convenient, the one thing standing in my way has come here on its own. All units, we are to engage and destroy that unit, it has interfered long enough."

_This isn't good._ CC thought, switching over to a private channel. _It's only a matter of time before Suzaku is found out._

"Lelouch, we have accomplished our goal. There is no purpose in lingering here any longer than we have to. The Britannians are bound to have reinforcements on their way here by now."

"I understand CC, but this is the perfect chance to eliminate one of the obstacles in our way. With the assistance of the Holy Swords we should be able to handle this matter with enough time to escape." Came his calm reply.

CC paused for a second. "Very well, but you will owe me a pizza when we get back." She said, signing off when he began to chuckle. _Lelouch, I hope you are prepared for the consequences of your actions here._

Any further thoughts or words became a luxury that neither she nor Lelouch could afford as the white knight opened fire with the rifle in one hand while still charging forward with one of his swords in the other. Most of the shots went wide by a large margin but they still succeeded in scrambling the Black Knights and Four Holy Swords. The distance quickly closed between the combatants, forcing the Lancelot to go on the defensive against the flurry of swords.

For a while he seemed to be holding his ground pretty well as the Gekkas kept coming head on, one at a time. That all changed when they charged at him from all directions, forcing the pilot to send his unit flying into the air and back out of range for a moment. He had little time to catch his breath as Todoh's black Gekka swung its weapon at him, the Lancelot's pilot blocking it at the last second with the rifle, destroying it immediately. The pilot fell back and drew its second MVS blade and went on the offensive, swinging the blades in quick succession at Todoh, who easily blocked the first strike and sidestepped the next.

"All units, give him space. His speed and movement capabilities may be impressive but he follows a predictable pattern." Lelouch called out over the radio. "Its initial attack is always straight on, he never feints that first move."

As he finished this sentence the Lancelot took a swing at Kallen in her Guren, which was easily dodged by the nimble machine. "Once you avoid his attack, he will immediately move on to block your offensive. Point F-57."

The Lancelot leapt into the air, landing exactly where Lelouch predicted it would. All of a sudden Asahina's Gekka sped around the corner of a nearby building, prepared to slash the enemy in half. This attack was quickly blocked by both swords and met with a half-hearted attack of his own to give him some room.

"His next move will be to fall back to the rear. Coordinates X-23." Once again, true to his word, the Lancelot jumped backwards to avoid the rising barrel of Asahina's arm mounted rifle.

"With that, I call check." Lelouch smirked as Todoh sped around yet another corner from behind this time, lunging for the Lancelot's cockpit.

It was his supreme speed and skill that saved the pilot's life, but the quick maneuvering came at a price. The blade of the black Gekka's weapon carved into the upper portion of the cockpit, cleaving it off as a result. Both machines backed off for a moment, Todoh preparing a follow-up strike when the unimaginable happened. As the white knightmare turned to face its opponent, the face of the mysterious pilot was revealed; it was Suzaku Kururugi.

A silence overcame the battlefield as Todoh, Kallen, and Lelouch looked with utter disbelief at the unveiled face of their enemy. All three were stunned and unable to move as their brains tried to process what their eyes were showing them.

_Lelouch, I am so sorry._ CC thought with regret. _I tried to prevent you from learning about it this way, I truly did._

"Zero!" Kallen yelled into the radio, panic starting to settle in. "What do we do? Are we going to retreat or do we—"

But Lelouch did not answer the redhead's question; he couldn't. He just sat there staring at the monitor, unable to fully comprehend the meaning of what he saw. Suzaku, his best friend and the person he had decided would protect Nunally, had turned out to be his greatest enemy. Suzaku suddenly charged for the nearest knightmare, the one belonging to Todoh. Both warriors' swords clashed together in a shower of sparks, each fighting for dominance over the other but neither succeeding. The radio was flooded with requests for orders, yet he just sat there, silent. CC, seeing that her partner was clearly not capable of making a decision at the moment, took command of the situation.

"Do not engage that unit, we have accomplished what we needed to."

"Forget that, we are destroying the white knightmare." Senba replied. "You got that?"

Kallen blanched. "No, we need to follow Infinity's orders and fallback!"

"We are not waiting. Captain Senba, take spinning life or death formation." Chiba ordered, completely disregarding her.

These words finally broke through Lelouch's stupor. "No, wait!" he yelled over the radio. "Do not engage!"

Asahina merely scoffed at the famed Zero's apparent uneasiness at killing. "Don't worry, it is a coordinated four way attack, he'll never dodge it."

The four Gekkas swarming around the Lancelot like hawks immediately charged in from all directions, their swords aimed for the exposed Suzaku. Quickly reacting to the threat, Kururugi activated the frame's harken boosters, sending the four projectiles to intercept his attackers. All of the weapons connected dead on, destroying the rifle-mounted arm from one unit and knocking the sword out of the other's hand while the others hit the remaining Gekkas from the sides. As the Four Holy Swords broke off the attack, awestruck at the feat, Suzaku threw one of his swords at Senba's unit, burying it to the hilt of the knightmare's chest.

Before they could regroup for a counter attack, Lelouch's voice once again boomed over the battle-net. "All units stop attacking! We have done enough fighting for now; we have achieved our objective here. Everyone, use escape route three and withdraw immediately!"

If anyone had any ideas of further disobeying his orders, one look at the sky quickly changed their minds. Hundreds of Britannian aircraft carrying hundreds of Britannian knightmare reinforcements soared overhead, preparing to drop their deadly cargo into the fight. The damaged Gekkas fell in behind the now retreating black knights as they activated their smoke screens to cover the escape. Suzaku quickly made the decision to try and pursue the fleeing enemy but was quickly immobilized as a burst of gunfire poured out of the dense cloud and destroyed his landspinner, causing him to spin out of control for a moment. He could only watch helplessly as the Black Knights disappeared from sight.

* * *

CC looked up at Lelouch's black Burai, saddened at the pain that he must be feeling at the moment and feeling guilty that she couldn't have done something to prepare him for this moment.

_This is my fault that he is going through all of this again. I should have done something to stop this; I should have done something—_

The immortal suddenly heard the hushed voices of Ohgi and Kallen speaking in front of the Guren. Taking one last forlorn glance at Lelouch's knightmare, she turned and walked over to her two comrades-in-arms. As she approached she was able to make out more of their words.

"Hey, do you think that Zero will be coming out?" asked the schoolteacher turned freedom fighter.

"No, and I've tried calling him over the radio, but he isn't answering." Kallen replied sadly, knowing full well why Lelouch was hiding away from everyone at the moment.

"Do not concern yourselves with Zero right now." CC said, stepping around the back end of the trailer and into view. "I suggest that the both of you go and see to securing the remaining knightmares."

Both of them nodded and turned around to do just that when one of the radios suddenly came to life. At first there was only static but that was quickly replaced with laughter—not laughter of joy or even amusement, but the kind that one hears from a person who has become mentally unstable or had just found himself the victim of some cruel joke. The laughter quickly became louder and more hysterical with each passing second, sending another pang of guilt through CC's chest and Kallen a shudder up her spine.

The three Black Knights just stood there in desolate silence, not wanting to listen to Lelouch's pain, but unable to stop all the same. Other members looked on in confusion as three of their most prominent members just stood there, frozen in place from some unknown force.

* * *

**Author note:** Well here is yet another chapter, again my apologies for it being yet another slow update but school is becoming relentless. So that concludes the unveiling of the Lancelot's pilot, and yet another chapter that lacks any major changes from the original but I just couldn't think of a better way to do it without making some kind of plot screw-up.

Hopefully this chapter was worth the wait so please leave a review and let me know how I did (please be gentle, I'm getting seriously beat down here). Apparently my editor thinks that I have improved enough that she feels confident that I should try to go on without her for a couple chapters, so that is what I will be doing. Because of that I will probably not be any faster with updating than I was with this one.

That concludes the newest (and longest) chapter of All For You. I will get the next chapter up when I can.


	19. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

_Why… it wasn't supposed to be like this._ Lelouch thought bitterly. _You were supposed to stand by Nunally's side. Suzaku… how could you be my enemy?_

Lelouch grabbed the nearest item, a pillow from the bed he currently sat on, and threw it across the darkened room, a soft thud signaling its impact against the wall. With a frustrated sigh the teen bent forward and buried his head in his hands, feeling at a loss at what to do after learning that his best friend, the person who he had wanted to entrust Nunally's safety, had not only betrayed him but his own people in the pursuit of his naive ideals. More over, Lelouch could not see a way to continue fighting without getting Suzaku killed in the process, something he wanted to prevent at all costs, if for nothing else then to spare Nunally the pain it would certainly bring should that happen.

As he was so absorbed in his thoughts, Lelouch did not hear the repeated light tapping at the door. After it continued for another 10 seconds without a response, the soft knocks turned to a much more audible pounding and still Lelouch did not seem to notice or care. It was only after an easily recognizable female voice called for Zero from the opposite side of the door did he seem to become aware that he had a visitor. Without a word he slowly straightened out and got off, silently padding over to the door. He pressed the lock override button and turned to walk back to his former seat, the door sliding open noiselessly behind him and allowing light to illuminate the private quarters of the black knight's mobile command center. Kallen and CC quickly entered the room, re-engaging the lock once the door had sealed shut, once again enshrouding the room and its occupants in darkness.

CC removed her mask and took her place beside the raven-haired teen on the bed's edge. "Lelouch…" she began quietly, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I know what you are…"

"No, you don't know what I am feeling." He interrupted quietly, his words laced with all his frustration. "Suzaku was supposed to be the one who would look after Nunally when the time came that I no longer could. But now I learn he is the pilot of the unit that has almost single handedly stopped me at every turn. How can I possibly fight the person I thought was my best friend? Is all of this really fighting for if I can't protect those I hold close? Is it—"

Whatever he meant to say was cut off with a resounding slap, delivered by the fiery redhead, which left both CC and Lelouch speechless. "That's enough Lelouch, just stop right now!" she exclaimed, her startling blue eyes alive with conviction. "You want to know why we fight, why this is all worth it? You said it yourself; we fight to protect those who cannot protect themselves. You can't just stop because things get tough or don't go your way!" the girl's voice started trembling slightly. "We need you to be Zero, now more than ever, Lelouch. You're the only one who can lead us right now."

Having said what she had meant to say, Kallen quietly hurried out of the room with her head bowed slightly. Lelouch still sat there, looking down in a daze; whether it was from the Kallen's actions or still due to him finding out Suzaku's secret, CC did not know. She placed her hand atop his, his gaze shifting almost imperceptibly at the contact.

"Lelouch, I'm sure she didn't—"

"She's right," the teen interrupted. "I know that she is right but that doesn't change the fact that the person I thought was my best friend is the one enemy that has stopped me every step of the way. If things continue as they have, I may be forced to kill him and I'm not sure I can do that, especially not to Nunally."

"We have been through so much already Lelouch and overcome harder things than this in the past. We will find a way to resolve this, just as we always have." The green haired girl reassured him. "But for us to do that, you need to pull yourself together."

Lelouch turned to face her, his face no longer a mask of moroseness. "That's right, we have beaten the odds before. And Kallen was right, I am Zero, the man of miracles." His lips curled up into his trademark smirk. "This incident does little to change our plans. The only difference is now we must tread carefully, both on the battlefield and off."

CC smiled at having her Lelouch back to normal and—

_Wait, when did I start thinking of him as _mine_? _CC wondered, her mind spinning from the implications. _Have I really changed so much since meeting him that I've come to be… human?_

The whole concept of 'being human' had been lost on the immortal girl for so long that even a question as simple as this posed difficulties in answering. There was one thing that she knew without a doubt however, whatever one might call her transformation from a cold-hearted witch that only wished to finally die into this suddenly uncertain creature who had people who genuinely cared for her wellbeing. And that one thing was simply this: she welcomed it. After being alone and closed off for centuries, she welcomed the uncertainties that came with this odd concept called life.

* * *

Several days had passed since the attack on Britannia's prison facility and Suzaku's appointment as Princess Euphemia's personal knight. At first the Britannian shock and disapproval had threatened to turn into outright outrage upon seeing an Eleven rising to a station that had traditionally been reserved for Britannians of noble birth. Most of it had since quieted down to hushed complaints, due mostly in part to the actions of Euphemia and an eccentric earl.

In that time Rakshata had managed to convince the Military District of India to 'lose track of' one of their smaller submarines, which the Black Knights had been only too happy to 'find' and re-purpose as their new base of operations. Because of the ever-increasing support base for the group, as well as the official joining of the Four Holy Swords, Lelouch and CC were forced to re-think the Knights' hierarchy and command structure.

"Now then, due to the recent reorganization, a few changes need to be made." Lelouch began. "Our new Chief of Military Affairs will be Kyoshiro Todoh." This brought on a wave of agreement and congratulations, causing Lelouch to pause until it had quieted down.

"Taking command of all espionage, intelligence work, and public relations will be Diethard Reid." This brought up another round of outbursts, purely ones of distrust and mild anger.

At the forefront of the objections was Chiba. "Zero, I'm not a racist but what is your reasoning for placing one of _them_ in such a sensitive position? Surely there are others just as suitable and _trustworthy_ than him for the job." The crowd nodded their heads in agreement.

"Reasoning you say?" CC scoffed. "What of Zero and myself then? All of you are well aware that we are not Japanese and yet you do not question us, correct? The matter is simple; he is the most qualified person for the job, what matters are results. Now, if you are done complaining like children, may we continue?" Despite it being worded as a question, none had any doubts as to whether she was giving them an option; like Zero, she commanded authority with ease.

Lelouch nodded his silent thanks to her. "My deputy commander will be Infinity and as such I expect you to consider her orders as my own. In charge of handling all of the day-to-day operations, as well as logistical support, will be Kaname Ohgi." Several of the former leader's comrades seemed disappointed with Infinity receiving the role that they figured he deserved but wisely kept all objections to themselves.

"In charge of research and development is Rakshata." CC said, picking up where Lelouch left off. "Kallen will be in charge of forming and commanding the Zero Squad. Urabe will—"

Kallen raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what is the Zero squad?"

"That will be the unit that is under the direct command of myself and Infinity and our command only. Think of yourselves as our personal bodyguard and attack force." Lelouch answered, causing the redhead's eyes to light up with excitement and pride.

For the next thirty minutes the pair droned on with the new assignments for the core members of the Black Knights. For the most part everyone was accepting of his or her duties and quite a few highly approved of them. There was one exception of course; Tamaki nearly had a heart attack when he heard that he would be placed in charge of the cleaning staff and assigned to the defense of the headquarters when they were in a battle.

CC took pride in her idea that, while making sense strategically, also got back at him for his past mistakes and insults, regardless of whether he knew of them or not. Lelouch wasn't sure why she seemed to have a grudge against him but he didn't care; it was best to avoid making whatever mistakes the less-than-brilliant man had done to get on her bad side.

Having been assigned their new roles, the lower ranking Black Knights, along with several mid-level members, filed out of the room to head to their new duty stations. Less than a minute later only the core members remained in the room, teasing Tamaki on his less than glamorous assignment and congratulating the others. CC and Lelouch were just about to quietly sneak out of the room when Diethard called out for them.

"Zero, Infinity, there is one more matter I would like to discuss with the core members. Suzaku Kururugi, the Ele- I mean Japanese soldier that was made a knight." He was quick to correct himself with the deadly glare that Chiba had sent his way.

"Yes, I am aware of who he is. What about him?" Lelouch asked guardedly.

Diethard grinned smugly. "He is becoming a threat to the cause. The Japanese are seeing him as a symbol for what Britannia has provided them. Many are starting to question whether they should support us when they feel they have a chance to rise above their condition though hard work like Kururugi."

"Then what do you propose we do about it? I hope you are not suggesting we assassinate him."

"Actually that is exactly what I am suggesting we do. While you may be the figurehead for the resistance, the submissive masses have had no such idol, until now." He explained as if one might to a child. "They won't be moved by simple ideology alone and now the Britannians have something they can hold up to them as a shining example of the honorary system. Taking him out is our most effective option right now."

"I object." Todoh stated flatly. "The Japanese people would be revolted by such a cowardly act."

Ohgi leaned forward and shot the reporter an angry stare. "Yeah, and the Black Knights aren't in the business of killing the defenseless either."

Other various members started to also voice their disgust at the plan when Lelouch raised a gloved hand, signaling them to be quiet. "I will not approve of the cold-blooded assassination of this man, regardless of whether he is an enemy or not. You are not to take any actions without my strict approval, understood?"

The ponytailed man looked surprised at the response. "But Zero, if we don't do something there may be—"

"Are you questioning Zero's judgment?" CC interrupted, annoyed that she would have to keep an eye on the turncoat reporter yet again. " Last time I checked Zero was the commander of the Black Knights and your job is to gather what intelligence he needs to do so. Or am I mistaken about that?"

Diethard sighed and threw up his hands in submission. "Fine, but at least give it some consideration. Mark my words, this Kururugi is dangerous and your mercy today may come back to bite you later."

Thoroughly outnumbered and ordered to back down, Diethard spun around on his heel and briskly made his leave, silently fuming from Zero's idealistic approach to the matter. When the door slid shut with a hiss, the remaining members began to express their distrust of the Britannian and his motives to one another and, unfortunately for them, Lelouch and CC. After several more minutes of this, they decided that enough was enough and simply left the room via the back door when nobody was looking their way. By the time anyone noticed their absence the door had already sealed shut behind them.

* * *

"Alright guys!" Shouted Rivalz. "Its time for us to raise our glasses to Suzaku here in honor of his knighthood! So lets get this party started!"

The clubhouse's ballroom erupted into cheers as all of the students gathered raised their cups into the air and yelled their congratulations at the newly appointed knight. He just smiled his thanks at his fellow classmates before turning to face a grinning Milly.

"You know who you have to thank for all this, right?" she asked and, when he shook his head, motioned behind her to the wheelchair-bound girl. "It was Nunally of course. You know Suzaku, sometimes you can be as clueless as Lelouch when it comes to these things."

The brown-haired teen gave off an appreciative laugh. "I'm not that bad am I? Anyway, thank you very much Nunally, this means a lot to me."

The young girl beamed from the gratitude. "I'm glad you think so. I know you have probably been to a lot of these already but I just thought that we should do the same. I wasn't able to do much but I wanted to help where I could."

"Oh don't listen to her, she's just being modest. She was the one who helped plan the whole thing, along with that lazy brother of hers."

Before Suzaku or Nunally could reply, said lazy brother walked up smiling and behind him was the ever-present CC, her typical unreadable expression plastered across her face.

"Madame president, I really wish you would stop speaking about me behind my back." Lelouch said, feigning annoyance.

"Oh come on Lelouch, you're no fun sometimes." Milly replied, feigning disappointment but failing horribly with her trademark grin. "At least Suzaku here knows how to take a joke, unlike a certain person I know. You could take lessons from him you know."

Lelouch chuckled and even CC couldn't help a small laugh. "Yes, well somebody has to keep you in line." The raven-haired teen retorted once the laughter had died down. "In all seriousness though, congratulations Suzaku, I cannot think of anyone more deserving of this that you. I just can't believe that you were the mysterious pilot of that white knightmare that has been in the news lately. Why didn't you tell us?"

"Sorry about that, the military didn't want to make it public that a number was piloting something so advanced. And I wasn't sure how you or Nunally would take it, learning that I was fighting on the front lines I mean."

Nunally shook her head. "You don't need to apologize, we were just worried about you. I might not like the idea of you fighting out there but I guess I understand. Just don't do anything dangerous, ok?"

Suzaku walked up close to the girl, going down on one knee and grabbing her small hand in both of his. "Yeah, don't worry about me. I promise you that I'll be careful. Besides, now that I'm Euph— I mean her highness's personal knight, its my job to be by her side most of the time so I wont be on the front lines so often."

An obnoxious "Hellooooo" from none other than Suzaku's boss, Lloyd Asplund, interrupted any further conversation. The eccentric earl's outburst immediately attracted the attention of every person in the room; all talk ceasing as they stared at the strange white haired man. Suzaku mentally face palmed at his superior's childish antics, reminding himself to ask Cecile later to give the mad scientist yet another lesson on how to act in public. Sighing from the knowledge that Lloyd wasn't here to take part in the celebration, no matter how plausible it seemed, Suzaku stood up and made his way over to the tall man. Everyone looked on as they exchanged hushed words for several minutes before Suzaku nodded and walked back to his friends.

"I'm sorry but my superior says that I'm needed back at the base. I wish I didn't have to leave, but orders are orders and there is still a lot of paperwork to do because of my promotion. I promise ill make this up to you guys later, ok?"

"Hey, don't worry about it, we understand." Lelouch assured him. "It just means that Milly will have to do another party some other time. How about to make it up, you have dinner with us soon?"

Suzaku smiled. "I'd like that a lot. How does tonight sound?"

"Sure, does around 8 work for you?"

"Yeah, I'll see you for dinner. Sorry again about having to leave so early, I know you guys worked had to do all this."

Milly threw her arm over his shoulder. "We told you don't worry about it, you apologize too much. Now get out of here Mr. Knight, we have a party to keep going!"

"Right, have fun everyone. And thanks again for doing this, I'll see you later Nunally." He said as he started to wade through the crowd of people between him and the door.

The young girl waved. "Bye Suzaku."

The group of friends looked on as the Japanese youth worked his way to the door, occasionally having to stop for a girl to further congratulate him. When he had finally succeeded in reaching the door and disappeared from view, they turned their attention to Kallen, who had made her way towards them shortly after Suzaku took his leave. Lelouch and CC immediately took notice of her nervous demeanor; it seemed she had something she needed to say but was unsure of how to say it or if she should at all.

It didn't take long for Milly to pick up on the redhead's attitude. "Hey what the matter Kallen? You look nervous about something. Oh, could it be you have a crush on Suzaku maybe?" She asked excitedly, her eyes gleaming dangerously gleam as she dug for some gossip on her 'sickly' friend.

Kallen's face immediately turned a bright shade of red. "W-what?! No, that isn't it at all!" She said, waving her hands feebly while shaking her head. "I just need to talk to Lelouch and Cera about something in private, that's all."

The bubbly blonde, the idea all but cemented in her mind, gave her a skeptical look. "Talk to them about Suzaku right?" Her face suddenly took on a dream-like look as another, even more outrageous idea took hold. "Oh, I think I understand now. You have a crush on Lelouch, right? You better look out Cera, you have competition now."

Not only did this statement succeed in making Kallen more flustered and make her face rival the color of her hair, but also CC, who's face also took on a very slight blush. Lelouch himself nearly choked at hearing something so outrageous as hearing that Milly could even consider that both of the girls could have a crush, or even something more, on him. Off to the side Nunally seemed off in her own world, what she was thinking could only be guessed at, but it was almost certainly relating to the thought of her big brother actually dating someone. Seeing that she may have taken it a little too far, Milly laughed, hard.

"I was just kidding you guys. But if I had to guess, I would say I wasn't too far off with some points, judging by your reactions."

"Milly Ashford, your imagination is certainly a dangerous thing. Now, if you are done spouting these… theories of yours, I believe Kallen wanted to speak with me." With his composure regained, the raven-haired teen turned around and made his way towards the stairs, his two female accomplice following behind him, both still recovering from their shock at the blonde's claims.

A few minutes later they were sitting in the living room of Lelouch's dorm, all three spread out on the different seats. Of course CC had taken the entire couch for herself, leaving Kallen and Lelouch to take the smaller, less comfortable chairs. Lelouch placed his hands on his lap and looked at the Black Knight ace with curiosity, waiting for her to begin.

"So what is it that was so important you had to discuss it here?" CC asked when the redhead said nothing. "Unless of course Milly was correct, and you do want information on Kururugi because of some crush."

Kallen glared at the immortal. "No, and I would appreciate it if you didn't start that either CC. I just thought you would like to know what Diethard asked me to do earlier today."

Lelouch sighed. "Well? I assume it has to do with Suzaku, right?"

"Yeah, he knew I had access to him at the school, being his classmate and everything so he wanted me to kill him." She reported, her tone laced with disgust. "I obviously told him no but I figured I should let you know that he was planning on going against your orders."

"I see, thank you. You were right in telling us about this. I suppose we will need to remind him of my orders later."

Kallen was stunned at Lelouch's callous approach to this news. "But he just tried to kill your best friend and go against your orders! Aren't you going to do something about it? How can you even trust him after learning about what he was planning?"

"It's simple, we don't need to trust him." CC explained calmly. "Diethard Reid is an easy man to read; his goal is to make Zero a symbol, a god if you will. And because his motives are predictable, he is easy to control."

"But still, shouldn't you do something about this? You don't know for certain whether he might try again."

Lelouch's lips curved into a knowing grin. "How do you know we haven't been planning for a way to deal with Suzaku without killing him?"

This statement aroused the redhead's curiosity. "Wait, you mean you had something and didn't tell the others? What is it exactly?"

"When he said we have a plan, Lelouch did not mean that it was entirely ready yet. As it so happens, you can be of some use in finalizing everything. Here is what we have so far."

* * *

Three days later and one hundred miles off the cost of mainland Japan, the Black Knights were setting up their plan to deal with Suzaku and the Lancelot once and for all. According to the intelligence reports, Princess Euphemia and her knight were meeting with foreign dignitaries at the Shikine Island military base today. Scouts had already confirmed one Britannian warship tied to the docks about a mile from the base, surrounded by a small detachment of knightmares from the base.

In a field about half a mile outside of the base's perimeter, hidden under camouflage netting to avoid detection by the air, sat the Guren, both command Burai, and the custom Gekkas of Todoh and his subordinates. Lelouch and CC stood beside their knightmares, observing the setup and concealment of the Gefjun Disturbers, machine guns, and missile launchers around a sandy depression in the earth. Thirty minutes later all of the weapons emplacements were loaded and covered and the camouflage taken down. Lelouch gave the order for the pilots who would be taking part in this mission to board their units and moments later the eight frames sped off in the direction of the base.

The group of Black Knights finally stopped once they came to the bluff overlooking the military compound, the Holy Swords spread out in a fan formation behind Lelouch, CC, and Todoh. Down below they could see several squads of knightmares roving around the grounds and supply trucks moving between the warehouses. Seeing that nothing going on in the base that might signify that their presence had been detected, Lelouch opened a line of communication with his subordinates.

"All units remember: you are not to directly engage the experimental knightmare Lancelot. Once he has entered the combat area you are to immediately fallback to the ambush point but do not lose him." He paused as a chorus of acknowledgements flooded his radio. "All units, commence operation!"

Immediately following his orders, all of the knightmares, both Burai excluded, rushed forward and raced down the steep cliff face and smashing through the perimeter fence. All across the base alarms blared to life as the sentries spotted the approaching Black Knights, weapons blazing and spewing death and destruction at any who dare stand in their way. Several knightmares unfortunate enough to be patrolling near the breaching point were quickly dealt with, the Gekkas' swords slicing through metal and flesh easily.

Despite the surprise attack, the Britannian forces once again displayed their organization and training by quickly mounting a defense of the headquarters. Although they fought valiantly, none of the severely outmatched Sutherlands were able to hold out for longer than a minute each. The few Gloucesters that were stationed there performed better than their predecessors but they too eventually fell to the fury and might of the Black Knights' coordinated assault. Just as Kallen was finishing off an enemy with her radiant wave surger, a red slash harken flew by her cockpit, missing by a matter of feet.

Urabe chuckled. "Well look who finally showed up. It took this guy long enough, there's barely any base left to shoot at."

Kallen wasn't amused. "Enough chatter, we have our orders to follow. Let's move into the second phase."

"Ah, come on Kallen, loosen up a bit." Asahina quipped. "You take things too seriously when it comes to Zero's orders."

"That's enough, both of you." Todoh admonished. "We have our orders and I expect you to follow them like the soldiers you are."

Their fun being put aside, the six pilots turned their frames around and started heading towards the hole in the wall that they had entered from. Kallen risked quick look behind her to make sure that Suzaku had taken the bait and was following them; he was. Using their slash harkens as grappling hooks, the Black Knights quickly climbed back up the steep embankment and sped towards the rendezvous with Lelouch and CC. Reaching the field, they quickly spread out in different directions and took cover in the surrounding trees, leaving just Lelouch and CC's units out in the open.

Thirty seconds later a white blur exploded from the surrounding forest and came to a stop in a cloud of dust. When the debris had settled down, the Lancelot stood there, the sun glinting off its armor and each hand holding a blood red MVS blade. Suzaku immediately saw both of the Burai and sped forward, moving in for the kill and completely disregarding the obvious trap. While CC sent her frame speeding around the precipice of the pit, Lelouch made his leap directly into the depression, quickly becoming bogged down by the sand. Moments later he had barely enough time to dodge the attack made by Suzaku, who had naively followed him down.

Lelouch smirked behind his mask as he pressed the button on his detonator, activating the hidden Gefjun Disturbers. "Checkmate, Suzaku."

The electronics in his cockpit automatically shut off, leaving it shrouded in the red hue cast by the emergency lighting. Reaching behind him he pulled a lever and undid the manual release on the cockpit hatch. Stepping onto the lift, he quickly lowered himself down to the ground.

"Suzaku Kururugi, I know you can hear me." He called out loudly as all of the concealed Black Knights lined the edge of the depression, their weapons trained on the immobilized knightmare. "Your hatch should still function, as well as your lift. If you do not comply with my wishes and come out in five seconds, I will order my subordinates to open fire."

Lelouch started counting down on his right hand and just as he was reaching one, the hissing sound of the hatch opening could be heard from behind the Lancelot. A few moments later Suzaku came into view, holding onto the line with one hand while aiming a pistol at Lelouch with the other.

"I hope you don't mind if I use this, Zero." Suzaku said, motioning to his gun. "You know, just as a precaution."

"Of course, whatever makes you feel safer. Although I would like to point out that if I wished you harm, you would not be standing here aiming a pistol at me."

The Japanese knight laughed bitterly. "So what is it that you want with me? If it is about me joining you, I already gave my answer."

"Actually that is exactly what I wanted to speak with you about. I propose we work together and put an end to this war once and for all." He said, extending his hand.

Before Suzaku could reply, a beeping noise issued from his headset, signaling an incoming communication. He motioned towards it with his free hand, silently asking permission to take the call, which Lelouch granted despite how ridiculous it seemed to do so. As time went on and his friend stood there, listening to whatever it was his superiors were telling him, Lelouch took notice of the subtle expression changes that took place; it started calm, slowly shifted to shock, and finally settled on resignation.

Before anyone realized what was happening, Suzaku dashed forward and grabbed Lelouch, twisting him around and using him as a human shield, the pistol pressed firmly against his temple.

"W-what are you doing Kururugi?" Lelouch grunted as he was roughly forced towards the Lancelot.

"I'm following my orders. By staying here I can ensure that you die for your crimes."

"Can't you see they are just using you? They care nothing about your life; you're just a pawn to them. Are you willing to die for people like that?" There was a tinge of desperation in Lelouch's voice now as he was forced onto the lift at gunpoint.

"And you are different? You use the Black Knights for your own ambitions and do not care how many lives you destroy to accomplish them." Suzaku said as he shoved Lelouch into the front of the cockpit, sliding in after him, sealing the hatch after him.

CC could only look on in frustration as Lelouch was once again taken hostage in the white knightmare. She had hoped to avoid this particular situation by using radio jammers to prevent Suzaku from hearing of the missile attack that should be arriving any minute now while simultaneously blocking the IFF signals they were suing as a lock-on point. Unfortunately the machine that they had brought with them for that purpose had been damaged when the Lancelot had charged into the clearing, rendering it inoperable.

"Infinity, what should we do?" Kallen asked, panic starting to settle into her voice. "I mean we have to do something right?"

CC thought for a moment. "No, we will hold here, Zero can handle himself. Besides, we may need to provide support for him, something is wrong."

"R-right, I'll hold and wait for your orders."

Suddenly the radar screen in CC's unit lit up like a Christmas tree as the system detected innumerable missiles flying directly for their position. With no other choice left, CC flipped her radio over to the general battle net, sending her transmission to all of the Black Knights in the area.

"Attention, we have a large group of missile inbound from the base and they will be here in less than thirty seconds." She said, bringing all of her formidable strength to her voice. "I want everyone to uncover the hidden weapons emplacements and for all knightmares and machine guns to fire at the missiles, empty your guns if you must. All missile batteries are to hold off firing unless enemy units arrive on scene. The number one priority is to protect Zero!"

True to her word, exactly half a minute after her announcement, the first of the missiles soared into view, arcing downwards towards the clearing. Every gun under her command opened up, sending a wall of lead skyward, the leading end of the barrage meeting the warheads head on, forcing them to detonate prematurely. The roar of her own Gatling gun drowned out most of the surrounding weapons fire but not the continuous explosions. Just as the last of the guns ceased firing, their ammunition spent, one last missile cleared the treetops and rocketed forward straight at CC's position.

She tried to move her knightmare out of the way but the missile was faster, slamming into the ground right below where she was, sending her own Burai into the pit and the field of Gefjun Disturbers. Shaking her head to clear out the black on the edge of her vision, CC slowly became aware of the thin stream of blood that trickled down the side of her head. Already she could feel the wound healing up but that did not stop the dull headache from persisting. Suddenly Kallen's voice filled her cockpit on a private channel.

"CC, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little scratch, nothing to worry about. " She reassured the redhead. _You better be ready on your end, it looks like we will need that assistance._

"**Yeah, yeah I figured that out pretty easily. I'm ready when you get everyone clear."**

"Ok, that's good. I'm not sure what would happen if you…" Kallen trailed off as a large, looming shadow crept over the now silent field.

Already knowing what it was, CC didn't have to bother looking at her screen to know that Schneizel's Avalon had appeared on scene. The gunners operating the rocket launcher turrets immediately opened fire at the floating intruder, each shot harmlessly exploding against the Blaze Luminous shields. The only reason that CC insisted on having those in the first place was to give them enough time to retreat out of the Gawain's hadron blast area, should this exact event happen; she was glad she took that into account.

_Abraham, you better know what you are doing here, otherwise this will end up being a complete waste._

"**Trust me, CC this is simple. If that vindictive Marianne was able to use the geass ruins to transport you, I should have no issues with it, those are my ruins after all."**

_Fine, I'll take your word for it._ She then addressed all of the rebel soldiers. "All units are to fallback to the sub and remain in the area. Zero and I will rendezvous with you within 2 days, once we evade pursuit. Is that understood?"

For a moment there was only the sound of the continued firing of rockets and their subsequent explosions, everyone somewhat unsure of the order. Finally it was Todoh who responded.

"Understood. Everyone fallback using point A19, and make sure to destroy the Gefjun units. Good luck Infinity, make sure that Zero and yourself return in one piece. Todoh out."

As the Black Knights began their organized retreat, the lower hatch on the Avalon began opening, revealing a black cavern. Two dark red balls of light slowly began forming in the center of the abyss, casting a demonic glow on the face of the Gawain. Fully charged, the advanced knightmare let loose its twin hadron cannons. Just as the rays of dark energy reached out for the three knightmares, everything went black.

* * *

**Author's note:** well first off sorry it once again took me a month to get this chapter out, end of term exams are excruciatingly time consuming this term. With that said I am nearing my break, where I will be able to get at least one chapter out faster than I have lately.

So how did I do? Writing this chapter was more difficult than I had thought it would be. I'm terrible with coming up with certain scenes out of the blue. As always I hope you will take the time to leave a review and tell me what I did right, what I missed/forgot, or if there is anything that I should try to add/improve on. And if anybody has any ideas for the plot of this story, please feel free to PM me and if I use them I will of course give credit where credit is due.

And with that I conclude the newest installment of All For You!


	20. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"CC, wake up, a voice said from the darkness. "Come on, you will have plenty of time to rest later."

The green-haired girl's eyes fluttered open only to quickly shut again from the intense sunlight. Waiting a moment, she once again opened her eyes to see a blurred figure crouched over her. Slowly her eyes adjusted and the details the face became more distinct.

"Good, you're finally up," Lelouch said calmly as he stood, grabbing his mask as he did. "I thought you would be unconscious all day."

CC started to sit up and Lelouch, being the gentleman he was, offered her his hand. Accepting the gesture, she was quickly helped up to a standing position beside him. Brushing the sand off her outfit, CC took a moment to look around at her surroundings.

They were both standing on a beach, the sand bleached white by the tropical sun. In both directions, for as far as she could see, there was nothing but scattered pieces of driftwood and the startling blue waters of the ocean. Overhead a lone gull flew in lazy circles in a search for food.

Behind them she could see the edge of a tropical forest teeming with various flowering plants. The air was alive with the sound of birds chirping, occasionally punctuated by the buzzing of insects.

A light breeze from offshore blew through her green tresses, carrying with it the tangy salt air that mixed with the scents of the forest to create a strangely pleasant aroma. The overall effect was almost enough for her to overlook the ancient but still dangerous secrets buried deep below its rocky surface. Almost. It seemed a shame for such a seemingly peaceful island to be doomed to becoming a battlefield but if that was what had to happen for her to accomplish her mission, so be it.

CC looked over at Lelouch. He seemed to be examining the area as well, although it was likely for more practical reasons, such as figuring out where they were, rather than just enjoying the beauty of nature. She remained silent, simply enjoying the slight breeze until Lelouch had finished surveying the immediate surroundings.

Lelouch turned to meet her patient gaze. "It would appear that we aren't too far from Shikine Island. Its likely we are just on one of the neighboring islands."

His accomplice smirked. "Oh, did you figure that all out on your own Lelouch?" she taunted before turning serious, cutting off any witty retort he was sure to be preparing. "Yes, that does seem to be the case. We may as well see if there is a way to contact the submarine.

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah…" he trailed off as a thought hit him. "By the way, I don't suppose this was your doing, right?"

She pretended to consider his question. "No, as far as I know my code had nothing to do with this," she half-lied. "Although I would not be surprised if it was connected somehow." That part at least wasn't a lie.

He merely shrugged, dismissing the thought for now; they had more important things to worry about at the moment. With the sun bearing down on them, it was becoming a little too warm for the teen so he raised his hands up to his neck and started to remove the unnecessary cloak. Sighing in relief from the already slightly cooling effect it had, he draped the cloth over his left arm that already held the iconic mask of Zero.

He gave her a pointed look. "If you like, I can carry that for you," he offered, motioning towards her own cape with his free hand. "No need to risk fatigue from overheating."

CC just smiled as she also removed the inconvenient article, bundled it up, and tossed it at him. The ebony haired teen grunted in annoyance as it landed atop his head, obscuring his face and vision. He quickly tore it off and threw it over his own, glaring at the now chuckling immortal.

"If you are done playing games, witch, I suggest we start looking for shelter and finding a way off this island."

Her laughter slowly died down, replaced instead by a smirk. "Has anyone ever told you that you have no sense of humor?"

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "Yes, you point that out every chance you get," he reminded her. "How I manage to put up with your constant taunting is beyond me."

With that said, he brushed past her and began walking down the beach towards a large cluster of rocks in the distance. CC decided to remain where she stood and take in the peaceful scenery for a moment longer. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, a small smile spreading across her lips as she inhaled the scents of the island. The breeze once again picked up slightly and blew through her hair, causing it to flutter in the gentle wind.

When he noticed that she hadn't yet fallen in step behind him, Lelouch looked over his shoulder and gave her a questioning look. He raised his eyebrow and stopped walking when he noticed what his accomplice was doing. He couldn't help but think that there was something about how at peace she seemed right then that made her seem just like any other girl, and a beautiful one at that. But of course she wasn't normal, he had to remind himself. The same laws that burdened others no longer applied to her and, perhaps more importantly, she was his partner and the one person he could confide in. It didn't take long for her to notice his obvious staring though as she gave him a sidelong glance, locking eyes with him immediately.

Lelouch coughed slightly and turned his gaze away from her before walking off again. Her smile slowly changed into a smirk at once again successfully making the teen nervous. As the distance between them increased, CC took off after him at a brisk pace. She quickly caught up to him and slowed her speed to match his, neither saying anything as they made their way towards the rocks.

It took several minutes for them to finally reach the boulders that now stood as high as their shoulders. The surface of the rock was smooth from the constant breaking of the waves against the small rocky peninsula, the spray making it slick. As there was no way around the obstacle short of wading through the water or walking through the forest, it was decided that they would carefully climb over it.

Because CC was the more physically capable of the two, she climbed up first, with only minor help from the teen below her. Once she had reached the top, she bent down and helped pull Lelouch up, with her doing much of the work; it took them two tries.

Neither said a word as they started to cautiously make their way across the slippery surface. The quiet did not extend to both parties however, as CC soon found out.

"**CC,"** Abraham began, with a slight pause. **"We may have a slight issue with that plan you had…"**

CC sighed. _You mean besides the fact that we still had to resort to being sent here? _

Silence, then: **"Yeah… well anyway, it involves that princess, Euphemia I think her name was. I'm not really sure how but she made it past your little perimeter and… well, I had to send her here with you."**

The news surprised her enough that CC lost her footing and slipped, falling right over the edge and into the water below, her ankle hitting the edge as she did so. Lelouch heard the splash and turned around just in time to see her hit the water. With a startled cry of "CC!" he quickly made his way over to the edge and peered down at the now wet and annoyed immortal.

"Are you okay?" he asked cautiously.

She glared up at him. "No, I am most certainly not. I fell into the cold water Lelouch." As she tried to get up she winced and promptly fell down into the shallow water. "And now I'm pretty sure I broke my ankle on the rocks."

Lelouch seemed to ponder this for a moment. "Understood, hold there while I work my way down to you."

CC just rolled her eyes as the teen disappeared from sight for a moment as he looked for the easiest way down. She heard him approach before she actually saw him make his way around the rocks. He had removed his shoes and rolled up his pant legs to avoid getting as wet as his accomplice. He stumbled once or twice from a rouge wave but otherwise had little trouble in getting to her. When he finally reached the soaking wet girl, he bent over and picked her up bridal style, to which she immediately began protesting.

"Lelouch, its just a broken ankle, it will heal in a few minutes. There is no need for you to carry me like this," she said, her face slightly flushed as she felt his arm brush against her side. "I'll be fine walking with some help—"

Lelouch looked down at her with a serious expression. "I wont hear anymore complaints CC. I'm aware of your capabilities but putting pressure of it will just make the healing time longer than necessary," he reasoned out. "Besides, we don't know what is out here and I will need you to be fully healed should any issues arise."

"Fine, do what you wish. But what about these clothes?" she asked, indicating her still dripping wet attire. "I would prefer to not have to walk around in these until they dry out on their own."

The raven-haired teen chuckled. "We can take care of that all in good time. Once we find shelter we can gather some firewood to dry them off. Until then, just relax and let me handle it, alright?"

CC sighed and turned her head away, reluctantly accepting the ebony haired teen's logic. She did have to admit that it wasn't all that bad though having Lelouch carry her in such a way, even if her ego was bruised a bit from needing him to do so in the first place while still wet from her fall. She couldn't help but wonder how he was able to lift her like this on several occasions yet still retain such a poor stamina in any other physically demanding task.

Before she could come to any sort of explanation for this, Lelouch came to a sudden stop. She looked up at Lelouch to ask him why they had stopped when he pointed ahead of them. Shifting her focus forward, all she could see was another large boulder in the middle of the beach, blocking a large part of their path to either side of it and making it so that traveling as they were impossible.

Lelouch turned downward. "You up for walking from here?"

CC moved her ankle around and, feeling no more pain, nodded to Lelouch to put her down. With a sigh of relief he quickly but gently set her down on her feet, grateful to be free of his charge, who had started to become increasingly burdensome over the last few minutes. CC was also glad to be back on her own two feet rather than being carried like some useless damsel in distress. She handed Lelouch his mask and the capes, which he had her hold when he was carrying her.

"After you," CC said, smirking as she added. "Ladies and children first."

"Oh how gracious of you," he said sarcastically as he resumed walking towards the narrow path. "I thought witches were supposed to melt away when they came into contact with water."

Her smirk didn't waver for a moment. "Perhaps I did and now I'm just haunting you."

"I find that very unlikely," he retorted. "A ghost doesn't weigh as much as you do. Maybe it's time to go easy on the pizza, before you get fat."

"I do not get fat, Lelouch." she huffed. "Maybe it is time for you to go to a gym."

"I don't think… put your mask back on, now." He said quietly as he did the same.

CC did as she was asked and drew her pistol at the same moment he did. Both of them moved as close to the side of the rock as possible. At first CC was unsure of what made him suddenly go into self-preservation mode. It didn't take long however for her to hear a voice calling out from somewhere on the other side of their cover. They exchanged knowing nods and switched places so that CC was now the lead person to act as a guard for him, should the person turned out to be hostile. Lelouch held up a gloved hand and counted down from three with his fingers.

When the final finger fell they both leapt into action, dashing around their cover and training their weapons on the figure, who had it's back turned to them at the moment. Just as they were beginning to apply the pressure required to discharge their guns, the pair simultaneously saw a brief flash of pink as the person turned around in surprise. CC relaxed her grip on the pistol while Lelouch just looked on in disbelief at who he saw standing before him.

"Oh, it's you Zero," Euphemia, her clothes just as wet as CC's, said with a relief that one might not expect from a princess coming face to face with her country's biggest criminal. "Or is it Lelouch that I'm speaking to right now?"

Lelouch chuckled as he reached up to remove his mask. "Sometimes it is difficult to tell, Euphie. Tell me, when did you know it was me?"

The princess shook her head. "I didn't know it was you until now, not really at least. I had my suspicions during the hotel jacking but still…"

"I see," he replied. "Well I was never able to pull one over on you, was I?"

Her smile grew as she started to walk up to the pair. "Nope," she confirmed before turning her attention to CC. "I am curious though Lelouch, who is she?"

"You can call me CC," the immortal replied as she removed her own mask. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Euphemia li Britannia."

Euphie giggled. "Just call me Euphie, everybody does. Hey Lelouch, is CC your girlfriend? She's really pretty."

Despite all of the times that the two have heard this, they both nearly choked at hearing the pinkette ask that question.

"N-no, of course she isn't Euphie, where did you get that idea from?" Lelouch stammered out, his cheeks heating up. _She is right about CC being… Wait, what am I thinking?!_

"L-Lelouch is right, we aren't like t-that, we are just partners." The blush didn't make her argument convincing.

"Ah, but you two look so good together," Euphemia pouted. "I guess the rumors about you two were wrong after all."

Both of them nodded quickly. "Yeah, you shouldn't believe everything you hear. You haven't changed a bit Euphie, still as gullible as ever."

"I am not!" she cried defensively. "You're just as mean you were when we were kids."

CC smirked at this bit of knowledge. "Yes, Lelouch does lack manners with women, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, there was this one time when we were kids that he—"

Lelouch, sensing that things were definitely turning against him, spoke out. "Aren't you two cold? Perhaps now would be a good time for you to dry your clothes."

The two girls looked down at their wet attire like they had forgotten about it until now. Lelouch silently thanked his good fortune at avoiding having any of his misadventures during his time as a young prince being revealed to CC; he had dodged the proverbial landmine.

"Very well, I will go gather some firewood," he said. "You two remain here until I return."

After handing CC their cloaks and masks, the ebony haired teen walked off to begin his task. It took nearly thirty minutes for him to gather enough driftwood and fallen foliage at the edge of the tree line to build a decent sized fire. By the time he arrived back at their encampment with an armful of the materials he had gathered, both CC end Euphemia had removed most of their clothing and draped Zero and Infinity's cloaks over their bodies.

Lelouch wisely focused all of his attention on starting the fire and not on the scantily clad girls behind him. It was all for the best, he told himself, seeing as one was his half-sister and the other was an immortal witch who had no qualms with making his life difficult. Occasionally he could hear Euphie giggle at something CC said and each time he mentally cringed as he imagined what sort of trouble she was getting him in this time.

After several hit-and-miss attempts, he managed to spark a flame that quickly grew into a respectable sized fire. With an accomplished smirk on his face, he turned around to let the girls know. In his moment of triumph however, he had forgotten the main reason why it was necessary for him to build such a fire in the first place, namely his two female companions who wore nothing but their underwear and the capes.

Euphemia's face immediately turned a bright pink not too far off from her hair's color. "L-Lelouch!" she exclaimed while trying to cover herself more. "L-look away!"

CC's reaction was slightly different. While she was still blushing, albeit less intensely than the pinkette, she was also glaring at the teen with a look that did not bode well for him.

"Lelouch, I realize you are a growing boy, but if you don't stop peeping like a pervert right now, there will be consequences," she said in a voice devoid of emotion. "Is that understood?"

Lelouch waved his arms defensively. "No, you've got it all wrong CC, I wasn't trying to peep. And I am most certainly not a—" he was cut off from his defense as he was struck by his mask. "Ow! What was that for?!"

CC looked at him annoyed. "I don't see you turning around, pervert."

Just as he was about to once again protest his innocence, CC picked up her own mask in preparation to throw it at him. Seeing it was useless in trying to persuade them it was an accident, and not wishing to be struck in the head again, Lelouch covered his eyes and began making his way around the large boulder. When he was safely on his side of the makeshift partition, he slid down the smooth side of the stone's face and made himself as comfortable as he could in the sand.

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Lelouch quickly put the incident in the back of his mind and instead focused on several questions that had been bothering him lately. The biggest one he had, and probably most central to his others, involved CC. More specifically, he wondered how she seemed to be so knowledgeable about certain events, as shown by her apparent lack of surprise at Suzaku being revealed as the Lancelot's pilot or anything else that happened for that matter. And then there was the feeling that she knew more about him and what was happening than she was saying.

Of course he had no definitive proof to base these assumptions on, just his instincts saying that something did not quite add up. He racked his brain trying to come up with some explanation for how she might have acquired this knowledge but had little luck.

_Perhaps she was involved in the Royal court before having her 'abilities' discovered?_ He thought, immediately dismissing the idea as soon as it came. _No, I would have recognized her, even back then. Could it be that she somehow saw into my mind when our contract was made? Maybe, but that still doesn't—_

"Hey, Lelouch?" Euphie called out from behind him, interrupting his thoughts. "Can I ask you something personal?"

He thought about it for a moment before answering. "It's about why I never contacted you, why I allowed everyone to believe that Nunally and I were dead, right?"

"Yeah," she said sadly. "We were so sad when we heard that you had most likely been killed in the invasion, even Cornelia was worried…"

"I'm sorry that I put you through that," he apologized sincerely. "But _that man_ left me no other options. If it were discovered that we had survived, Nunally would have just been used as another pawn in his games, they all would have. I couldn't allow that, _I will not allow it._"

There was a moment of silence as she digested this information. "You really must hate us, don't you Lelouch? That's why you became Zero isn't it? To protect Nunally."

"No, I could never bring myself hate you Euphie. But I can also never forgive father for what he has done," he said, his words filled with loathing. "He is the reason I became Zero. I must put a stop to him to put an end to his tyranny and to create a gentler world for Nunally."

There was another pause before she responded, this time with a tinge of hope. "Can't we just go back to the way things were before Lelouch? Just you, me, and Nunally together and having fun?"

It was his turn to pause now. There was nothing he would have liked more than to be able to return to normalcy, to put all of this bloodshed behind him and just enjoy life again. But it was far too late for that, he had altered far too many lives in his quest so far and he was not about to let it all go to waste.

_No,_ he thought bitterly. _The past is dead and there is nothing that anyone can do about it._

"I would have liked nothing more than to be able to do that Euphie, but I have already started down this path and to turn back now would betray those who lost their lives so far."

Lelouch closed his eyes in remembrance and tilted his head back, sighing deeply before continuing.

"The Britannian soldiers, the Japanese, Clovis, my mother, all of them have paid the ultimate price for Charles zi Britannia's ambitions as well as my own. I refuse to allow them to have died in vain, that is why I cannot and will not alter my course."

_This only ends when one of us is dead, _he added in his head. _Only then can they rest in peace. Until then…_

On the opposite side, Euphemia was barely able to contain her tears. She just stared at the sandy ground as she tried to absorb Lelouch's words. She had figured that he held some resentment towards the Royal family but not once did it occur to her that he would change so drastically. There was hardly any of the old Lelouch that she had known as a child in the tall, dark haired teen that she was speaking to now.

_Poor girl,_ CC reflected. _She just found out that one of her closest siblings, whom she had thought was dead, is alive but so drastically different from the one she lost._

"**Yes, that is true but perhaps it is for the best."**

_You may be right about that. It is unfortunate that she had to learn all of this in such a short amount of time though._

"**The girl had too many illusions, that's why she became Princess Massacre—"**

_That is not going to happen again, not if I can help it._

"**Very well, I will be going now, it seems I have guests to deal with," **he said half amusedly.** "You know how to contact me."**

With the connection severed, CC turned to face the disillusioned princess beside her. She gave the girl a nudge, earning a nervous smile in return.

"Why don't you tell me more stories of Lelouch as a child?" she asked with a smirk, loudly enough for said teen to hear.

_This_, Lelouch thought grimly, _is not good._

* * *

The mess hall of the Black Knight submarine was absolutely silent, the only sound being a pinging noise coming from somewhere outside the full. A full minute passed as they sat there, nobody moving a muscle or even so much as breathing heavily, in fear of being detected by whatever enemy vessel was searching for them. Slowly the noise died down as the source receded into the distance. They all let out a collective sigh of relief when the intercom announced that the enemy's flying carrier had left the area.

Ohgi scratched his head thoughtfully. "A flying battleship, who would have thought that was even possible."

"Yeah, I was hoping to be the one to perfect a float system," Rakshata said disappointedly. "Darn that Earl of Pudding for beating me to it.

The ponytailed newsman turned traitor cleared his throat, gaining most of the gathered Knights' attention, save Todoh and Rakshata. The former was busy meditating on the small stage where Lelouch and CC had introduced everyone's roles several days ago. And the later was busy typing furiously at a computer, no doubt working on figuring out how her rival had accomplished the Avalon's flight systems so quickly.

"Can we get back to the matter I brought up earlier? We cannot—"

"Absolutely not!" Kallen yelled angrily. "There is nothing to talk about! We are not abandoning them!"

Diethard sighed in frustration. "But you don't even have any proof that they _are_ alive," he pointed out. "We need to consider the safety of this vessel and its crew first and foremost. We will do nobody any good if we are killed or captured."

Tamaki slammed his fists on the table. "Listen here you, my buddy Zero is alive and I aint leaving without him. So you can just shove it right up your—"

"That is enough, all of you," Todoh said quietly, his eyes still closed. "We will remain here as Infinity requested. They still have 36 hours to contact us before the deadline is up."

Diethard opened his mouth to say something but was cut off with a deadly glare from Kallen. Instead he collected himself and left the room with as much of his ego intact as he could. Tamaki grinned and started going off about the nerve of 'that guy' while Kallen just sighed in relief.

_I hope you guys know what you are doing; I don't know what we're going to do without Zero and Infinity._

* * *

"Are you sure you don't need help Lelouch?" Euphemia asked concernedly. "That looks like hard work."

The raven-haired teen grunted from exertion. "Yes, this isn't a job for a princess… Don't worry, my plan is foolproof."

Just as he said that the branch he was using as a shovel splintered and then snapped all together. Sighing in irritation, he looked from the broken tool to the pitfall trap he was working on and back to the branch. He straightened out and wiped the sweat from his brow, produced by a combination of the manual labor and the hot tropical morning sun. He heard some giggling and snickering coming from behind him. When he turned around to face the girls he saw Euphemia covering her mouth in a failing attempt to suppress her laughter while CC made no such efforts, openly mocking him.

He sent a glare at the green haired girl that could have frozen water. "Why don't you look for some fruits or do something useful?"

CC smirked. "Oh, so you admit that this wasn't your best idea?"

"I have said nothing of the sort," he retorted defensively. "The plan was good, I merely did not have the correct tools to properly execute it."

"Of course it was, _Lulu._"She said condescendingly. "I'm sure that it would have worked just fine if you were capable of doing it."

Euphemia jumped in to stop what she perceived to be a heated argument. "I'll go look for something to eat then," she said cheerfully. "CC, would you mind helping me?"

The immortal shrugged. "Sure, we can let Lelouch play survival expert while we get breakfast."

The aforementioned teen just turned his back to the girls and started looking for a more suitable branch, his determination to prove CC wrong and to catch food with his trap renewed. He was still testing the durability of one of several larger limbs when the girls started off down the small game trail they had followed in from the beach earlier. As they walked further down the path, the sounds of dirt scraping against something could be heard from the small clearing, signaling Lelouch's resumed efforts to dig his pit.

* * *

The fire crackled and roared, the flames occasionally reaching up and licking the small piece of meat, searing its surface. After a few more minutes of allowing the food to properly cook, Lelouch withdrew the stick from the flames and placed their meal on a large leaf along with some of the berries and fruits that Euphemia had found. With a satisfied smirk on his face he took out a small pocketknife from its hiding place within a concealed pocket of his cape and began cutting off pieces of meat, placing it on several smaller leaves.

_It's a good thing Kallen insisted that I begin carry one of these,_ he reflected with a chuckle as he recalled the redhead forcing the blade into his hands one day. _I suppose I will have to remember to thank her later._

The food dished distributed and put on the makeshift dishes, Lelouch passed each of the girls one before grabbing the last for himself. He eyed the unappealing meat nervously for a moment before taking a tentative bite. To his pleasant surprise it actually tasted pretty good. When he first found the young boar in his pitfall trap, he was unsure of whether or not it was suitable to eat but he was glad to have been wrong for once.

Apparently the girls shared his sentiments as they also began eating their shares happily. CC ate hers hungrily right off the bone while Euphie went at hers in a far more refined, even girly manner, daintily picking off a small piece at a time. CC noticed Lelouch looking at her with a satisfied smirk so she stopped eating and matched his gaze with one of her own.

"Can I help you with something Lelouch?" she asked monotonously. "Or are you merely enjoying the view?"

"No, I'm just watching a witch stuff her face," he retorted with a grin. "And I do not believe you have admitted that my trap worked."

CC took another bite of her food. "No, I didn't."

Euphemia laid a hand on Lelouch's shoulder. "I think you did a great job Lelouch, the food tastes great too," she said with a smile.

"Thank you Euphie, at least one person is able to express appreciation," he said with a glare aimed in CC's direction.

As the trio ate their meal, the conversation shifted to more friendly and benign subjects. It was unanimously agreed upon that any talk of Zero, the rebellion, or politics in general would be off limits for the rest of their time on the island. Most of the time was spent simply catching up on what had been going on in their lives for the past decade. Since he knew that CC wouldn't have much that she could say, Lelouch slowly shifted the topic to what had been happening with the student council. It quickly became apparent however that Euphie seemed especially interested in three subjects in particular: Suzaku, school, and Lelouch and CC.

They had a good enough time talking about the first two subjects, especially Lelouch, who decided it would be fun to tease his half-sister about her obvious crush on his friend. A madly blushing Euphemia who stumbled over her answers and seemed just generally flustered constantly rewarded each and every one of his efforts. He slowly grew bored of this so he ceased his little game, much to her relief. Whether she purposefully meant to or, as the other two suspected, whether it was completely innocent curiosity, the princess got her payback.

It was now Lelouch and even occasionally CC's turn to become defensive as she started to ask all about their supposed relationship. How had they met? How close were they? What was with the strange mark on her head and on their masks? Did they signify something some sort of strong bond between them? When was he going to ask her out? After they had denied all these in an only slightly embarrassed way, she went for the big one: had they kissed?

To say that the immortal and her accomplice were shocked would be an understatement. They just stared at her silently, mouths agape for several seconds as they tried to determine if they had heard her correctly; they had.

"What?!" both of them cried out simultaneously.

"E-Euphie, how could you even think that?!" Lelouch asked indignantly. "Of course nothing like that has happened! What kind of person do you think I am?"

The pink haired girl waved her hands in front of her defensively. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry. I just thought you two looked really good together and seemed to really have fun with each other."

"I see…" CC muttered quietly.

"Right… that's fine I suppose. Just do not get so carried away next time, all right?"

Euphie nodded. "Okay, I'll try not to. But don't you think that you also got carried away?"

"Yes, I do seem to recall you enjoyed doing the same thing Lelouch." CC confirmed for her.

"That is true but I believe I have already apologized for that," he retorted as he stood up. "Anyway, if everyone is done eating, we should begin searching for the source of those lights that I saw last night. Depending on who it is we can figure out how to handle them. Either way, I'm afraid our time together will come to an end Euphie"

Both girls agreed and rose to their feet, CC collecting the masks while Euphemia grabbed the cloaks they had used as blankets last night. After Lelouch put out the small fire, they started walking in the direction of the path that they had used earlier this morning that led deeper into the island interior. They walked on in silence for nearly fifteen minutes before the foliage started to thin out and the path widened enough for them to walk side by side. Suddenly the trees ended and they came into a clearing just beyond a large cluster of shrubs.

They stopped and ducked down behind the bushes when they noticed a lone figure standing on a large stone square in the clearing, his back turned to them. The sound of rustling leaves startled the sandy haired figure, making him spin around and draw his pistol. Euphemia let out a surprised gasp upon recognizing her knight, Suzaku Kururugi.

She tried to stand up and let him know she was there but Lelouch's firm hand on her shoulder stopped her. He gave a nod to CC and the both replaced their masks on their heads and put their cloaks back on. Once they had once again assumed their masked personas, they both drew pistols, much to the pink haired girl's surprise and worry. As she was opening her mouth to question their actions, Lelouch answered her as of yet unspoken question.

"Don't worry, we aren't going to hurt him," he reassured her. "Just follow my lead and everything will turn out fine."

"Okay, I trust you."

"Good, now CC why don't we greet our friend?"

The immortal sighed. "Always one for the theatrics, aren't you?"

Lelouch said nothing as he stood, gently pulling his half-sister up with him. CC followed his example and also rose from her crouched position. The sudden appearance of the trio greatly surprised Suzaku, who quickly raised his gun at the masked figure of Zero. Just as he was about to speak, he realized three things simultaneously. One, Euphemia was held in front of Zero like a human shield. Two, both figures had their own identical pistols out. Three, that Zero had his trained on the princess while infinity held hers steadily on him.

"What is the meaning of this Zero, Infinity?" he asked finally. "too cowardly to face me without a hostage?

Lelouch chuckled darkly. "What is the matter White Knight? Do my methods displease you?"

"I suppose that is unfortunate then," CC continued monotonously. "I suggest you drop your weapon before you do something you will regret. You have to the count of three to surrender."

"One," Lelouch said calmly.

The Japanese teen's gun started shaking slightly as he weighed his options. One look in his eyes told Lelouch that he was torn between his duty as a Britannian soldier and his attachment to Euphemia.

"Two."

Suzaku removed his left hand from the pistol's grip and threw both hands up in the air, the pistol dangling from just his index finger. "Fine, you got what you wanted. Now let her go, take me as your prisoner instead."

"Oh?" Lelouch said amusedly. "I don't seem to recall ever saying that I would let anyone go. Infinity, relieve the Sir Knight of his weapon."

CC said nothing as she slowly approached Suzaku, never shifting her aim from his in case he tried to be a hero. She stopped about ten feet away from him and pointed at the ground

"Don't try anything and slowly place your gun on the ground," she instructed, waiting until he had done so to continue. "Good, now kick it towards me."

Just as he did so, the ground below them began to shake violently. The sudden feeling of falling overcame them as the ancient Geass sigil chiseled into the platform began to glow a deep blood red. Lelouch let go of Euphemia, who quickly ran to Suzaku's side as they continued to descend down into the earth. CC quickly scooped up the surrendered pistol and hurried back over to Lelouch's side.

It was just in time too as they floor they stood on cleared the lower edge of the shaft and revealed the large chamber that held one of the many thought elevators. They were blinded for a moment as they high-powered beams of the Britannian's excavation teams' lights hit their eyes. Slowly the details of their new and unexpected surroundings emerged just as their falling motion came to a jarring halt.

The chamber was filled with startled scientists and soldiers who stared at the new arrivals as if they were alien invaders, which was not as far off considering the circumstances. Behind them was a pair of manned Sutherlands carrying crates, their weapons dangling uselessly at their hips. Lelouch's focus quickly found its way to a group of three people off to the side near a massive black knightmare, the type of which he could not make out. The first he quickly recognized as Suzaku's boss, an Earl Lloyd Asplund if he remembered right. Next was an overweight Britannian general who he did not recognize that looked as if he might collapse from a heart attack. It was the last person whoever that brought his blood to a boil.

"Schneizel…" the raven haired teen growled murderously. "A shame I cannot settle things now, brother. Revenge will have to wait for another time."

CC moved closer to her accomplice. "Lelouch, you see that knightmare correct?" she whispered, waiting for his slight nod. "I want you to make your way to it and try to see if you can get it going. Wait until I start shooting, understood?"

"Yeah, good luck CC, I'll be counting on you."

She gave a small laugh. "That's nothing new Lelouch. Don't worry about me, just focus on getting that thing ready for a quick escape," she said before she quickly raised both pistols and began firing into the crowd of soldiers. "Go!"

The raven-haired teen sprung into action, quickly dashing off in the direction of the knightmare, occasionally letting off a stray shot to provide extra cover. The soldiers quickly formed a semi circle in front of Suzaku and Euphemia before opening fire at CC, who returned fire at them unflinchingly. Five of the men fell before she heard the Gawain powering up.

CC fired the last rounds from her weapons and took off towards the familiar form of the Gawain, the bullets flying all around her. As she was climbing up the left arm of it, she felt a jolting impact hammer into her right shoulder blade, making her stumble and finally fall into the open cockpit. The hatch was quickly closed after her as Lelouch send the bulky machine forward, slamming into the two Sutherlands, who were now reaching for their weapons, and knocked the backwards.

He continued his rapid escape from the chamber towards the light at the end of the long tunnel entrance. Just as it looked like they would make it without any further confrontations, three additional knightmares appeared with their weapons at the ready.

CC immediately found the controls for the weapons and pressed the fire controls. There was a slight delay as the unfinished hadron cannons charged up but only seconds later the entire corridor was filled with innumerable beams of red light shot our from the twin weapons. When the dust and energy had settled there was no trace of the three enemy pilots that had occupied the exit moments ago. The Gawain shot out into the open and Lelouch immediately saw the cliff fast approaching.

He looked down at the controls with a smirk. "Interesting…" he muttered with interest. "CC hold on, it would seem this knightmare has another useful feature."

As he entered the commands to activate the float system CC rolled her eyes. She knew she should act surprised to be in a knightmare that could fly but she just could not bring herself to fake it. She had after-all flown several of them and seen countless others use them quite regularly in the past so it was little surprise as to why she found no amusement in it.

"Just take us home Lelouch," she said as she removed her mask. "I just got shot protecting you again and I need a bath and a pizza, in that order."

Her accomplice chuckled as he removed his own mask. "As you wish, your highness."

* * *

**Author note:** hey, so sorry that it took this long. I know I said I would be getting out two by now because of break but I lost what I had halfway through and was forced to restart. Add to the fact that I was irritated beyond belief at this loss and lost motivation for a couple days and now you know why I was slow. Do not worry though, I have learned my lesson and will now be backing up all files offsite as well to prevent such an issue from arising again. oh and some of you may have noticed the new cover art for the story. i would like to thank TheGlaceonFanatic, one of the authors working with me on another story in the SAO fandom, for his amazing work.

Now for the chapter. As most of you hopefully noticed (not that it was hard to I guess), Kallen was not transported to the island so nobody outside of the Black Knights knows of her involvement yet. I hope this was a good chapter, it was… difficult. Let me know how I did with a review or pm, I always need more to go on to improve my writing. And know that I have some big plans in the making now that should finally break me free of this cannon heavy plot that I am growing to dislike, as are others. If anybody has ideas that they would like to see my try to pursue, let me know in a pm and I will see how it looks. I should be back in about a month, hopefully less but school is back so I doubt it.


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

CC turned off the radio and leaned back in the co-pilot seat with a sigh. Absentmindedly she rubbed the wound on her right shoulder where the bullet had exited. Much of the damaged tissue had reformed and much of the pain had subsided. The only reminder of the unfortunate event was the bloodstain around the torn cloth of her Infinity costume and a dull pain that was getting duller with each passing minute. Lelouch took a quick glance back and, seeing what she was going, cleared his throat impatiently, snapping her back to the Gawain's cockpit.

"Well, what did they say?"

"The sub hasn't moved from its original position, just as I told you it wouldn't," she said plainly. "It does sound like your favorite pilot may have persuaded them a little though."

The raven-haired teen chuckled. "Yes, that does sound like her. I certainly don't envy the person who managed to make her angry. Just sit back and relax, we should be seeing them any minute now if they surfaced like you instructed."

No sooner had the words left his mouth, a small black speck appeared on the horizon, quickly growing in size as the large knightmare neared it. Eventually the shape took the distinct form of the Black Knights' newest base of operations. Lelouch put the Gawain into a hover one hundred feet above the deck as one of the several cargo hatches began to slowly open. As the large double doors came to a halt, he slowly reduced power to the float systems and allowed the black frame to descend into the cavernous hold. As soon as the Gawain's feet struck the floor with a muffled thud, the motors re-engaged, this time in reverse, and the great steel doors once again began to close. For a moment the cavernous hold was devoid of light before the overhead lights kicked in, bathing the area in a harsh white light.

Lelouch felt a tinge of pride as he saw his Knights standing attention at the far wall, looking for all their worth like the elite organization they were, the core members at the head of the small procession. Based on their shocked expressions, he surmised that they hadn't fully accepted that he and CC had managed to commandeer such an advanced unit, despite their assurances to the contrary. Grinning in amusement at seeing his subordinates' disbelief, Lelouch donned the mask of Zero and waited for CC to do the same. Once they had both made the transformation back to their respective personas, Lelouch typed in the command for the Gawain to kneel and open the cockpit hatch.

The pair swiftly leapt onto the shoulders of the machine and walked down to greet the group, who had slowly begun to approach them. Rakshata wasted no time in brushing past them and walked straight to the float system on the back, motioning for her technicians to bring over several computers to begin examining their newest toy.

"Take care that you do not go overboard," CC cautioned her. "Wouldn't want you to make it impossible to fly, would we?"

The Indian woman scoffed at the remark. "Don't worry, I'm just curious what the Earl of Pudding has been up to lately. Plus I'm practically dying to look at what I can do with those hadron cannons," she added with a hungry grin.

She took a deep inhalation draw from her pipe and turned her attention back to the knightmare with a hungry gleam in her eye, everyone else in the room long forgotten. CC then shifted her focus back to Lelouch, who was busy trying to placate a jealous and complaining Tamaki.

"Ah, come on!" the older man whined. "Why are you the only ones who get something like that? If you gave me a flying knightmare, I could win this whole thing by myself."

Kallen rolled her eyes at her childish friend. "I don't know, maybe Zero and Infinity are the pilots because they are our leaders?" she replied sarcastically.

"Yes, and I doubt that you have the mental aptitude to use such a machine at any rate," CC quipped, earning a laugh from both of his friends. "You would most likely crash it into the ground, if you ever managed to get it in the air that is."

Tamaki, his face reddened with anger, turned to face his new tormentor. "I don't need to take that crap from Zero's mistress! What makes you think that you could do any better than I could in that thing?"

Lelouch cleared his throat, cutting CC off from making a scathing remark. "We will discuss that later Tamaki, understood?"

The loudmouth simply nodded and took a very sudden interest in his feet.

"Good, there are matters that I need to take care of now if there is nothing else for the time being," he said as he began walking past them. "Kallen, would you come to my quarters as well? What I wish to discuss may be of interest to you."

"Um yeah," she said surprised. "Lead the way, Zero."

With a slight nod, Lelouch started walking, the small group of Knights parting to either side to allow both of their iconic leaders and the knightmare ace to pass. They waited, standing at attention until the hangar door had hissed closed behind the trio. Todoh then turned to face the gathered low rank members and quickly dismissed them with orders to return to their duty stations to prepare for departure from the area. It wasn't long before only Todoh, Chiba, Ohgi, and Tamaki were left standing there.

"So what do you guys think those two are talking about?" Tamaki asked. "And why did Zero want Kallen to listen in? You think she knows something we don't?"

Ohgi shrugged. "I don't have any ideas what Zero and Infinity were so eager to talk about with her. How about you Todoh, what do you think?"

"To be perfectly honest, I do not care what they are talking about. A good soldier does not question his superior's motives. If they want us to know, they will tell us all in good time."

Tamaki groaned in annoyance. "Oh come on, you don't really believe that do you? Aren't you guys even a little curious about what they're up to? All this mystery stuff is killing me here!"

Chiba rolled her eyes while Todoh just sighed at the young man's childish antics. While the brown haired man kept going on about expressing his desire to know what their masked commanders were up to, the two former JLF fighters silently made their way to the door to see to all final preparations for the sub's impending departure from the area. Ohgi looked longingly at the door as it hissed shut behind them but he was unable to make his own escape as Tamaki threw one of his arms over his former leader's shoulder.

"Hey!" the brown haired man yelled. "Are you even listening to what I said?"

The former terrorist commander sighed. "Not really, I agree with Todoh on this one. As long as they continue to support us the way they have, they have the right to keep a few things private," he said as he extricated himself from his friend's hold. "Besides, it probably isn't anything that important anyway."

* * *

"She what?!" a certain redhead cried as she jumped up from her seat. "You can't be serious, right?"

Lelouch motioned for her to retake her seat in front of his desk. "I'm afraid that it is true, Princess Euphemia li Britannia is aware of who I am or rather, who Zero is," he confirmed tiredly. "There is nothing to worry about though, she—"

"What do you mean there is nothing to worry about?" she asked worriedly. "Of course there is, one of our enemies knows who you are! What if she decides to tell her military? You could be—"

Lelouch held up a hand for her to be silent. "As I was trying to say," he began calmly, "we can trust her to keep my identity safe for the time being. Our means may differ but in the end she wants the same thing as we do: the Japanese people to regain their independence."

Kallen snorted in a very unladylike manner. "I still don't like it Lelouch. I would sooner put my trust in Diethard than I would in any member of the royal family."

One of CC's eyebrows raised a fraction of an inch. "Oh? So you believe that everyone in the Britannian royal bloodline is evil, unjust, and undeserving of trust?" the immortal asked her monotonously. "I'm afraid that is where you and I disagree Kallen. While it is true that most of them are indeed just that, there are a select few that don't share the same views as the Emperor and his children. Isn't that right Lelouch?"

The raven-haired teen shot his accomplice a warning glare before nodding. "Yes, there are several who are genuinely good people that believe in fighting violence with peace. Euphemia is one such person and because of that she won't be alerting the authorities."

The flaming haired ace sighed and stood up. "I hope you two know what you're doing, because I sure don't," she said as she started walking for the door, pausing at the threshold for a moment before continuing. "But if you want to trust our enemies, I guess that's your choice, not mine."

And with that she opened the door and quickly exited the room, the door automatically closing behind her with barely a whisper. A brief silence permeated the air as Lelouch considered the girl's words, wondering how the others would react if they were told what he was thinking.

_Certainly nothing good,_ he decided with a sigh. _It's amusing to think that they despise Britannia's discriminating ways yet their mindset is nearly the same._

With a shake of his head, Lelouch rose from behind Zero's desk and strolled over to the couch which CC had lazily spread out on_, _cuddling her cheese-kun doll close to her chest. The green haired immortal didn't bother to turn her head towards the tall form of her accomplice. Lelouch looked down at her with his arms crossed, a scowl slowly appearing on his face from the annoyance he felt at not even being acknowledged.

"You may want to stop glaring at me like that Lelouch, your face could become permanently stuck like that," CC said, the mirth in her voice slipping through her stone faced demeanor. "If I did not know better I would say you were trying to kill me with that look alone."

The raven-haired teen's frown slowly morphed into a playful smirk. "You know as well as I that it wouldn't work, not for long at least. I must admit the idea is tempting though."

CC turned her head to look at the teen, returning his smirk with a knowing one of her own. "Didn't your mother teach you that isn't how you treat a lady, _your highness_?"

"She did, so it is quite fortunate that the only other person here is a witch, wouldn't you agree?" he asked, followed soon by a brief chuckle.

CC rolled her eyes in mock annoyance. "Don't you have anything better to do than harass me? Perhaps running your revolution?"

The grin slowly faded as Lelouch was reminded of what he had originally wanted to talk about. He walked over to the unoccupied couch across from hers and took a seat, muttering something about willful women that made CC's smirk grow a fraction of an inch. Once he had comfortably settled into the soft leather, Lelouch locked eyes with his contractor and began speaking, all humor now gone from his voice.

"Tell me, what do you know of those ruins we found on Kamine Island? They appear to have connections to Geass and if Schneizel is interested in them, I am as well."

CC sat up from her relaxed position, all the while holding his gaze evenly. "You are correct in saying that they are connected to the power of geass. Think of it as a thought elevator, a way to transfer one's conscious."

She took a brief pause to recall all that she knew of the elevators, the Sword of Akasha, Ragnarok, and Charles' plans with them all. For a brief moment she considered holding back any information regarding the emperor but quickly dismissed that thought. She had made her mind up to tell him everything she knew, short of time travel anyways, when a familiar voice entered her mind.

"**Are you sure that's such a good idea? I do not think that he is ready to learn all of this. Perhaps holding back—" **

_No,_ she interrupted sternly. _There is nothing to gain by hiding this from him any longer; he has the right to know. And I don't think you are giving him enough credit, he was able to save your miserable existence and take over the world almost singlehandedly._

Abraham made a sound that sounded like a sigh. **"Fine, there is nothing I can do to stop you from telling him anyway. Just don't come to regret it later."**

_I won't, this is the right thing to do._ She thought, cutting the connection shortly thereafter before once again shifting her focus back to Lelouch, who had remained silent as he waited for further explanation.

"The thought elevator on Kamine Island is not the only one in existence. There are several others scattered throughout the world, most of which are under direct Britannian control or will soon be."

This news surprised the raven-haired teen and sent his mind reeling from the implications. "Are you saying that the reason that the emperor has been invading other countries is just to find these ruins?" he asked cautiously. "What could be so important about these 'thought elevators' that my father would be willing to destroy half the world to control them?"

"I'll tell you but you must promise to remain quiet until I have finished. Can you do that?"

Lelouch simply nodded and

_This is it,_ CC thought tensely. _Either he accepts what I tell him or he will lose it._

"Decades ago, as a child, your father came into contact with another code bearer who goes by the name VV. On that day they made a contract that granted Charles the power to rewrite the memories of any person and in return they swore to create a world with no lies."

CC took another pause to gauge Lelouch's reaction to what she had said so far. If she had expected him to be angry or stunned, she was to be disappointed. Instead of either of these reactions he simply sat there looking at her thoughtfully, leaning to one side of the seat, his head braced against his right hand.

She took a deep breath before continuing. "Over the years VV and Charles grew close to the point of declaring themselves brothers, all the while working to ensure that your father became the next emperor. Not long after they succeeded and he took the throne, he met your mother and she was quick to take up their dream. Around this time I came into contact with the newly crowned empress and, in exchange for promising to end my life, I granted her a geass and agreed to help them fulfill their goal."

"Her geass, the power to transfer her mind into that of another, remained inactive until the day she was attacked at the Ares Villa." Another pause as she collected herself to tell him the news that could prove to be his breaking point. "Contrary to what was reported however, Empress Marianne did not die that day—"

Lelouch jerked up in his seat. "What did you just say?" he demanded angrily. "I know what I saw that day, my mother was murdered in front of Nunally! Because of that my sister was blinded and handicapped, so don't try to belittle that by saying it didn't happen!"

CC broke contact briefly as she recalled the last time he had been this antagonized; nothing good had happened then either. "I didn't mean it like that Lelouch. I know that you are reminded by that day every time you look at her and I know how hard it must be. But what I'm telling you is the truth, your mother isn't dead, not in the traditional sense anyway."

The ebony haired teen sighed and slowly sat back down, however reluctantly. "Fine, go ahead and continue."

She nodded her thanks. "If you recall the geass that she was granted, your mother had the ability to transfer her conscious. When I said that it had never activated, I was not being one hundred percent accurate. It was only as she lay there, bleeding to death that it finally became useable."

The sudden change in Lelouch's expression from barely restrained anger to one of realization signified that it had clicked for him. "You mean to tell me that she was able to save herself by taking over someone else's life?" he asked cautiously. "Is that why my why father dismissed the investigation, because he knew she was alive?"

"Yes, that's right," she affirmed. "But to be honest, I'm not sure if he knew at the time that she had survived."

"I see," he muttered, deep in thought. "And I suppose that you left because you do not agree with their plan to somehow use these ruins to make their dream come to fruition."

CC simply nodded.

"I wont ask you for your reasons, they are unimportant in the long run anyway," he said calmly, his mind already working to formulate several different scenarios in which his parents might be attempting to realize their dream, dismissing each and every one of them as absurd.

He stood up and silently strode over to the couch that CC sat on. Stopping in front of her, he looked down, violet irises meeting gold, and offered her his right hand. His eyes practically burned with a resolve very much like when he had confronted both of his parents together for the first and last time.

"I appreciate your honesty in this matter," he said firmly. "We can worry about my parents later, for the time being we just need to continue as we have. What do you say to returning to Ashford right now for a few days of rest?"

CC took his proffered hand and rose to her feet. "I think that is the best idea you have had in the last few days, _Lulu_," a devious grin slowly graced her lips that did not bode well with him. "And I still have not forgotten about that pizza you promise me."

_Of course you haven't, _he thought despairingly. _At this rate I wont have enough funds to feed Nunally much less myself. I wonder if she will be fine with something besides that accursed Pizza Hut…_

* * *

"Welcome home Lelouch, CC," Nunally greeted cheerfully as the pair walked through the door. "Did you get all the research done on that project you told me about?"

Lelouch set down their overnight bags and knelt at her side, taking her hand in both of his. "Yeah, I learned a lot more than I had thought we would," he answered with a nod in CC's direction. "Since we're done with that project, I won't be going on any more trips for a while. Enough about my boring work though, what did you—"

A low rumble from the young girl's stomach interrupted him. Nunally looked down in embarrassment, her cheeks tinged pink. Lelouch gave a brief chuckle before standing up and ruffling her hair.

"I guess I better start dinner, why don't you have CC help you set the table for just the three of us?"

Nunally nodded happily. "Ok, I'll tell you what happened while you were gone when we eat."

"I would like nothing more," he said with that smile that he used for her and her alone. "Everything should be done in about half an hour."

While Nunally turned to asking for CC's help, a task the immortal was not all too happy at being forced into, Lelouch began walking towards the small kitchen, mentally going through all the ingredients and steps he would need to prepare their meal. Switching on the lights, he made his way over to the refrigerator and pulled out the cheese, tomatoes, and some leftover dough he had from baking bread for the student council's bake sale a couple weeks ago to fund Milly's hot springs trip. After several minutes of working he placed the uncooked pizza in the oven and set the timer for the required amount of time.

While he waited for it to cook he turned his attention to brewing a pot of tea and, once the water had reached a boil, brought it out to the small dining room attached to the kitchen. As he walked through the threshold he saw both girls sitting at the table at Nunally giggling at some private joke while CC wore a small smile. The sight of seeing his little sister and CC acting carefree brought a small smile to his face, the scene oddly reminiscent of his life as a young prince enjoying his days with his sister and half-sister.

_I think I could get used to this,_ he thought to himself. _When this is all over, I'll make sure that we can enjoy more moments like this. All of us, Nunally, Euphie, Suzaku, and even CC, will know this happiness again._

It was then that CC noticed his presence behind her, turning around in her seat to face him, the smile still there and her golden irises reflecting a serenity that he rarely, if ever, saw coming from her. And then the look was gone, replaced with the one he had come to know and accept as a part of her, that same guarded look that radiated all of her hard earned knowledge and experience. When he didn't say or do anything, she raised one of her finely shaped eyebrows questioningly.

"Are you just going to stand there staring all night or do you plan on joining us?" CC asked rhetorically. "A person could get the wrong idea if they saw you spying."

Lelouch walked over and set the tea and cups on the table. "I was just enjoying watching you act human," he retorted with a smirk as he poured them each a cup. "Besides _Cera_, I thought it was rather endearing, one might even say _cute_."

Nunally gasped at hearing her older brother's comment, obviously surprised by what she took as flirting on his part. CC's reaction was much more rewarding for him however as her face immediately took on a slight pink shade as she looked away. Upon seeing how well his comment had worked on the both of them, Lelouch began chuckling in amusement as he continued to pour the tea.

"If I didn't know better CC, I would say that I was getting to you."

She shot him a glare that, had she not been red in the face, might have actually proven convincing. Unfortunately for her though, she was still blushing from his earlier comment, rendering any actions on her part thoroughly ineffectual.

"Shouldn't you be taking care of dinner?" she muttered quietly, still not making eye contact.

The raven-haired teen shrugged. "I suppose so but it is much more amusing to do this. Besides, it is only natural that I be allowed to have my fun after enduring yours, wouldn't you agree?"

"That's not a nice thing to say to a girl Lelouch," Nunally scolded him. "I don't think that it's fair to CC to tease her like that."

He immediately caved, just as they all knew he would. "Fine, I apologize for taunting you CC. I'll go check on the food then, it should be done any minute now."

He quickly handed each of the girls a cup before briskly walking out of the room. The two of them just sat there in silence, sipping at their tea for nearly a minute before Nunally set down her cup and looked right CC, who's face had since returned to its normal pale complexion. The green haired girl watched curiously at the younger girl across from her but remained silent, continuing to enjoy her tea as she waited for Nunally to say whatever she wanted to.

" CC, can I ask you something personal?"

She set down her cup with a sigh. "Sure Nunally, I'll try to answer as best I can."

"You and Lelouch have been acting different lately, are the two of you fighting or something? I don't mean to pry, I just don't like to see you like that."

CC's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. "Don't worry Nunally, Lelouch and I are fine, we have just had a few things to deal with lately," she said reassuringly. "I appreciate the concern but you don't need to worry, ok?"

The brown haired girl nodded. "Alright, I'm glad that it's nothing, I don't think I could handle seeing either of you mad at each other," she said with a tinge of sadness in her voice as the mere idea of that possibility was voiced.

_This poor girl, she has gone through so much yet she still puts more concern in others._ CC thought morosely. _This time I'll make sure she sees her dream come true without anymore suffering. At the very least I owe her that much._

"CC, what's it like to um… to have a boyfriend?" Nunally asked embarrassedly. "I would ask Lelouch these kinds of questions but he freaks out a little whenever I try."

One of CC's eyebrows rose questioningly. _What is she talking about?_ And then it hit her, the deal they had made when she had first enrolled._ Oh, that's right, as far as the school knows Lelouch and I are dating. Between our duties with the Black Knights and everything else, I had completely forgotten about that…_

"Well Nunally, it's… different from what I am used to," she began calmly. "I'm not sure how to explain it exactly but I can say that even Lelouch has his moments when he makes me smile."

"Although those moments are certainly outweighed by his complete obliviousness to anything girl related," she added with a smirk. "How anybody can be so smart but so clueless if beyond me."

Nunally giggled at this statement. "I know what you mean, my big brother isn't exactly good when it comes to dealing with girls." Her expression turned a little more serious, the mirth in her voice however remaining. "I have noticed that he does seem happiest when he is with you though. Correct me if I'm wrong but you two don't have many secrets between you, do you?"

Hearing this come from the lips younger girl in front of her made CC's heart skip a beat, if only for a brief moment. Granted she already knew that Lelouch was a different man around her but all her doubts about the exact nature of their relationship had taken its toll. There were still times when she doubted whether she ever really had a chance of finding that happiness that she sought, that happiness that only the raven-haired teen in the other room gave her. And although she knew that it was by no means gone, CC felt that doubt dissipate, like clouds after a long storm, from hearing Nunally's opinion.

The brown haired girl tilted her head to the side when she received no reply. "CC, are you alright? I didn't say something wrong did I?"

CC shook her head before immediately realizing the gesture could not be seen. "No, you didn't say anything wrong Nunally, I was just thinking," she reassured the younger girl. "I guess you're right though, we don't really have many secrets between us."

_At least he doesn't have any,_ she added mentally.

Nunally beamed upon hearing this but before she could say anything, Lelouch stepped through the door, carrying a large, steaming pizza. CC spun around and stared eyed the pizza hungrily as soon as the scent of the still bubbling cheese reached her nostrils. Lelouch imperceptibly faltered in his steps from the intensity of her stare; she looked as if she might pounce on him any minute. Fearing that she might do just that, Lelouch quickly placed the plate on the table and began cutting off several slices for himself and Nunally; CC would of course get whatever he did not immediately take.

"So what were you two discussing?" Lelouch asked, not taking his eyes off the task at hand. "Nothing inappropriate I hope."

"It's a secret," Nunally said with a giggle. "CC and I were just having a nice talk, you shouldn't worry so much Lelouch."

Lelouch gave an appreciative chuckle. "Alright, if you say so. Why don't you tell me about what you did while we were away?"

"Well Sayoko taught me more about origami and I'm trying to learn how to make a dog right now. It's pretty hard though so I'm not very good at it yet," the young brunette explained excitedly. "Oh and the student council took me to Clovisland yesterday. That was really fun but I wish that you and CC could have been there too, I think that you would have liked it."

_It sounds like I need to have a talk with Milly and Rivalz later…_

"Yeah, it does sound like fun Nunally, maybe I can take you there again sometime," Lelouch offered with a smile as he set a plate down at each set seat.

Nunally beamed. "Can CC come as well?"

Lelouch made a glance at the girl in question; she was already ravenously devouring her third slice. Shaking his head in mild disbelief, he sat down at his place beside his sister.

"If you want to but I'm not sure that she would want to go honestly. CC doesn't really like that sort of thing, isn't that right—"

"I'm not sure where you got that idea from _Lulu_," CC interrupted between bites. "I enjoy going out, not that you would know since you are always busy with other things."

"Wait, you haven't taken CC out on any dates?" Nunally asked, surprised. "That doesn't seem fair to your girlfriend Lelouch."

Lelouch coughed as he choked on his pizza. "My what?" he blurted out in shock. Apparently he had also forgotten about the rumor that they had created to make his life easier.

CC mouthed the words 'play along' to him, knowing he would if for no other reason than not making his little sister feel bad. Nodding in understanding, he indicated that he expected her to explain everything to him later.

"Well, we have been pretty busy lately so I haven't found any time to do that. But I guess I will have to make time, won't I?"

Nunally nodded in agreement before moving on to other topics, most of which were directly or indirectly related to their relationship. Once in a while the conversation was punctuated by Lelouch and CC having one of their good spirited 'debates' at which time Nunally would remain silent and just listen contentedly. It was not long however, before the brunette let out a yawn, causing Lelouch to glance at the clock. Realizing that it was now nearly 10pm, he decided that it was time for her to get to sleep. As he escorted Nunally to her room, CC decided that she might as well follow the younger girl's example and walked off in the direction of her and Lelouch's shared bedroom.

Figuring that Lelouch would be busy with his sister for a while, CC didn't bother locking the door as she entered the room, switching on the lights as the door hissed shut behind her. Quickly kicking her shoes off into a corner, she quickly began removing her Ashford uniform, lazily tossing each article into an unkept pile on the floor, deciding that Lelouch would pick it up for her later. Just as she was removing her skirt, the door hissed open to reveal a gawking Lelouch, his mouth hanging open in surprise at seeing CC in nothing but her underwear. It wouldn't have been as bad if she had been wearing her usual underclothes but unfortunately for both of them, they were currently in the wash, forcing her to resort to wearing a lacy set that Milly had given her as a gag gift not long after learning of her sleeping arrangements.

The pair just stared at each other, neither saying a word; there wasn't really anything to say at any rate. Slowly, they both felt their faces heat up, serving to only further the awkwardness of it all. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, but was no longer than a few seconds, Lelouch turned on his heels and walked back out, making sure to shut the door behind him. Once he was out in the hallway, the raven-haired teen leaned back against the wall and rubbed his temples in and effort to clear his mind of what he had just seen; it wasn't working.

_Get a hold of yourself Lelouch;_ _it isn't as if you saw anything. _He thought, annoyed at his inability to control his emotions. _This is starting to become increasingly tiring; at this rate I'm going to end up getting a heart attack from that woman._

Straightening up from his position, Lelouch decided to try and clear his mind by clean up from their dinner. As his footsteps faded down the hallway, back in his room, CC was laying down on the bed, clothed in one of Lelouch's old dress shirts. Much like the teen working away in the other room, she was also having difficulty getting her mind off of what had happened. It probably didn't help that she also had to deal with an extremely nosey and bored being that had no qualms about voicing his opinions.

"**Are you sure that you didn't have that planned CC?" **Abraham asked gleefully. **"Maybe you wanted to try and get his attention in a more direct sort of way? I must say though, I would have never figured you would try that."**

CC groaned and further buried her head into her cheese-kun. _For the last time, it was never my intent for him to walk in on me. Just the fact that you think that way is disturbing enough._

"**What?" **he asked, sounding genuinely confused. **"I fail to see what the big issue is with him walking in on you while you were changing. It is not as if he hasn't seen that much of you before you know."**

_Of course you wouldn't see the problem,_ she replied exasperated from the seemingly endless innuendos. _And if you remember, I was not even conscious for most of those moments you seem to enjoy bringing up._

Completely disregarding her statement, he continued.** "My point still stands young code bearer, this seems to happen far too often to be simple coincidence. Time to just cut the foreplay and go right for the—"**

Having heard enough out of the disembodied voice for one day, CC promptly cut him off by severing their mental connection. Shaking her head at the absurd commentary, she pulled the covers up to her neck and hut her eyes, hugging the large yellow plushy close to her chest. Just as sleep came for her, one last thought flared up in her mind.

_Next time, I'm locking that damn door and burning this accursed underwear._

* * *

Lelouch was currently suppressing the urge to smash his head into the table. The reason for this was simple; Milly was giving her 'minions' yet another one of her (in)famous speeches about work productivity and their apparent lack of it recently. And unfortunately for all of the gathered student council members she showed no intention of giving up any time soon, despite having been going on for nearly five minutes now. Stealing a glance to his left, he saw that Rivalz was struggling to fight the urge from bolting out the door. Beyond the blue haired teen he saw that Suzaku, the ever loyal and eager-to-please person that he was, seemed to actually be listening to the blonde's tirade.

To his right sat CC and Shirley and neither of them seemed very pleased with Milly's lecture either. His orange haired friend was passing the time by discreetly drawing on the back of some form, fooling Milly into thinking that she was actually doing something productive. CC, noticing his glance, shot a quick glare at Lelouch that he easily read as saying that she was displeased, to put it nicely. It also did not escape either of them that Kallen was the only one absent from today's meeting.

_I cant believe I'm saying this but I would prefer listening to you babble on, Abraham._ CC thought in annoyance. _At least you know when to give it a rest._

"**I'm not sure whether I should take that as a compliment or an insult. But you're right on one thing: that girl can really get going when she wants to. It is rather impressive how she doesn't seem to need to pause to breathe though, I wonder how she pulls that one off?"** he added as afterthought.

CC pondered this for a moment. She hadn't really noticed until that he was indeed correct about his assessment; not once had Milly paused in her speech to take a breath, not even when she had wielded a roll of paper like a sword against Lelouch and Rivalz at the onset.

…_You know what? I'm not sure how she pulls that off either._

"**You need to be more careful with this one from now on,"** he cautioned unnecessarily; she had figured that one out a while ago. **Anyway, I have some good news and some bad news that you might be interested to hear."**

_Does this news happen to be good for you? Or is this actually something useful for once?_

The bodiless voice scoffed at her question. **"Everything I say has a point, sometimes it just doesn't make much sense at the moment. But if you don't want to listen, I guess I will just let you listen to Miss Ashford's absolutely enthralling lecture."**

_Enough games, just tell me this supposed news that you have._

Abraham chuckled at her attempt to play it off as nothing. **"Well, the good news is you won't have to sit through much more of this meeting. You're probably not going to like the reason why though, hence the bad news."**

CC sighed at the vagueness of his answer. _What are you—?_

"**You'll see in about 5 seconds,"** he interrupted gleefully as he cut their connection, his laughter echoing.

Shaking her head tiredly from the supposed deity's word games, CC began trying to piece together the vague clues to pass the time. Before she could come up with any inkling of what he meant, the door burst open, exactly 5 seconds after Abraham had finished, to reveal none other than Ruben K. Ashford, founder of Ashford Academy and Milly's grandfather. The gathered students immediately stopped what they were doing and waited to see what he was doing here.

CC, having not laid eyes on him for nearly 2 decades, was moderately surprised to see that he had not aged much. Other than his hair being completely gray, he looked much like he had back then. His cerulean eyes had not dulled at all, holding all of the sharp intellect and mischievous glint of his more youthful days. And despite being in his mid 60's he still cut a large figure, standing at just over 6 feet, and looked like he could still best younger men in a fight.

The former lord noticed her appraising stare and looked for a moment like he might recognize who she was but, thankfully for her and Lelouch, dismissed it as a simple case of mistaken identity. Without a second glance at anyone else, the elder Ashford purposefully strode over to his granddaughter, his noble upbringing readily apparent in his posture and brisk pace.

Stepping to the right of Milly, he pointed to a small, rarely used television set in the corner. "Millicent," he began, his soft baritone voice strong yet commanding. "Would you turn on the television to the news?"

With a quick nod, Milly did as she was told and quickly switched the old set to the local news station. On screen was a female reporter standing on the deck of a small boat, with a dark coastline behind her. Far off in the distance they could see the lights of several large buildings, with many smaller light sources surrounding it. Almost immediately, the voice of the reporter came over the speakers, bringing with it news that shocked all present, with the obvious exception of the eldest Ashford.

"For those of you who are just tuning in, we have breaking news. Rogue elements of the former Eleven government have taken control of the military base located in Kyushu. We have reports of seeing gun-rues, the Chinese Federation's knightmare frame, signifying a possible alliance between the rebels and the Chinese Federation."

The reporter paused as a large explosion issued out from one of the smaller points of light.

"What we have just seen was the destruction of one of the many Britannian Navy's destroyers that have been blockading the captured base. We have yet to see any attempt by Viceroy Cornelia to regain the base, most likely due to the heavy seas and lack of visibility."

While everyone watched the television broadcast with morbid fascination, Lelouch and CC quickly made their way out of the room, the raven-haired teen pulling out his cell as he rounded a corner. Quickly punching in the number for Kallen's cell, Lelouch threw open the door to his dorm, CC hot on his heels. After a few rings the redhead answered, her heavy breathing indicating that she was likely running as well.

"Kallen, have you seen the news?"

"Yeah, I'm coming to you now," she replied hastily. "Where are you right now? The student council room still?"

"No, I am getting a few things from my room right now. I want you to contact the others and tell them to meet us at the headquarters then meet me at the front gate in 10 minutes."

"Right, I'll see you there."

With a click she was gone, allowing Lelouch to turn his attention to CC. He wasn't surprised to see her already pulling out the suitcase that held her Infinity outfit and, seeing that she had already anticipated what he meant to say, went right to his closet and pulled out an identical bag. With a brief nod, they both hurried out of the room and towards the main gates. There was one thing that confused CC though about the suddenness of the attack. In her timeline the battle of Kyushu had happened nearly a week after the Kamine Island incident.

_What had changed?_

* * *

**Author note:** well I finally got the chapter done guys. Sorry it took so long but I have been dealing with some personal things and, when combined with 4 project courses in college, I have little time to get much written. And I'm going to be honest, I kinda lost inspiration to write anything for a bit but thanks to the continued reviews I was able to get my groove back! Unfortunately I will not be writing for a month or so due to the final few weeks of this term and the massive exams/projects that comes with it. I will officially begin writing again on June 12th and after that I will be on my summer break so that could probably mean more consistent updates.

Now for the chapter… I hope you guys liked it, I had some fun writing certain parts of it. One thing that a reader brought up last chapter reminded me to clarify that Suzaku indeed does not have the "live" command at this point in time. The reason for this is because Abraham was able to teleport them to Kamine Island quick enough to beat Lelouch to the punch. And I would like to thank another reader for giving me the idea to have CC introduce the Ragnarok connection to Lelouch earlier rather than later. Sorry if I forgot your names guys, I hope you know who you are anyway.

I will see you guys in late June/early July with the next installment of the ever-popular story All For You!


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